


Batfam Soulmate AUs

by Starkk



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman: Arkham (Video Games), Batman: Arkham Knight Genesis (Comics), DCU, DCU (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Bodyswap, Dick Grayson is Robin, Dick Grayson is a Good Brother, F/M, Female Reader, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Homelessness, Hurt Jason Todd, Hurt/Comfort, I'll add tags as I post more, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Jason Todd is Arkham Knight, Protective Tim Drake, Reader-Insert, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Street Kids, Street Rat Jason Todd, Strong Female Characters, Swearing, Tim Drake Has a Bad Time, Tim Drake Needs a Hug, Tim Drake is Red Robin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:41:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 56,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28688061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starkk/pseuds/Starkk
Summary: Soulmate AUs with your favorite vigilantes! Each one could probably stand alone, but I have a couple already written so I'm just going to post them as long chapters.1. Sleepless Nights (Tim Drake) 10K2. Knight (Jason Todd) 20K3. Knight Part 2 10K4. Switch (Dick Grayson) 15K5. Stuck (Damian Wayne) Coming Soon
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Reader, Jason Todd/Reader, Tim Drake/Reader
Comments: 16
Kudos: 159





	1. Sleepless Nights (Tim Drake)

**Author's Note:**

> Hi peeps!  
> I know that I've been struggling to finish some projects that I've started (and I'm very slowly working on them), but I'm starting to think that I'd do better in a one-shot kind of setting so that there's already an ending xD These have started to get stuck in my head so I wrote a few down and then this happened. 
> 
> Enjoy the first one being Tim/Reader with a soulbond of only being able to sleep when your soulmate is also asleep :)

You have no idea how he lives with it. You pour your fifth cup of coffee and take out some more homework. It had been three days since you were last able to get a good night’s sleep. The rest of the time you had to make due with one to two hour naps that your soulmate gave you sporadically throughout the days. The fact that your soulmate is a chronic insomniac has been the bane of your existence lately. You’d normally get through the rough patches by being heavily caffeinated, and knowing that your soulmate was also up with you helped, but this time it was entirely too long and you swore that you were starting to see things. 

It also didn’t help that when your soulmate did decide to grace you with the ability to sleep, it was usually in the middle of the day, which left you with fumbling for some sort of excuse or running out of class so that you can find the comfiest spot within 100 feet of you to curl up and take a desperate nap while you had the chance. 

Soulmates came in many forms these days and you definitely got the short end of the stick there. You couldn’t help but be jealous of your friends who got some pretty words on their skin, or songs stuck in their head. Hell, you’d probably even take pain sharing at this point. You’d literally kill right now for a dream-sharing soul bond, even if it meant you’d be alone all the time at least you'd be able to get some sleep. 

There was one good thing about sleeping the bare minimum for brain function (you’d looked up that number, fearing that your soulmate’s poor choices might kill you) and that was that you had ample time to get shit done. You’d completed two bachelor's degrees in three years while taking both day and night classes, and were starting on a master’s. You could be productive with your time as long as you drank a disgusting amount of coffee and energy drinks. 

Speaking of coffee, by this point you were finishing the cup, and were fully intending to start the sixth when you realized that you were out of beans. Cursing, you debated the merits of going out for more beans or just roughing through the tiredness. Neither of the options seemed appealing. The streets of Gotham were notoriously dangerous at night, even with the bats patrolling. They couldn’t be everywhere. But still…

In one of your worst ideas of the year, you found yourself grabbing your keys and heading out into the night, homework in tow. There was a 24 hour coffee shop/diner not too far from your place. It was known for housing the only clientele awake and daring enough to be out in Gotham at his time. Naturally, there were a couple of university students and gangsters already there when you finally walked in. Everyone looked up warily at your entrance, but quickly realized that you weren’t a threat and went back to whatever they were doing. You walked straight up to the bar and nodded at the barista. Julia. She knew you well enough to know what you were going to order already and started making it. You got your coffee and set up your work. Walking through dark Gotham streets twice in one night was just asking for trouble, so you could wait here until sunrise as long as you kept ordering specialty coffees, which was your plan anyway. 

You got a few hours of peaceful work in. The sun was just barely peeking out when you were startled out of your daze by a voice right next to you. You visibly jumped and then turned to see most likely another student. He looked to be about your age, tall and thin with black hair. He was talking to the barista so you couldn’t see half of his face, but you could tell that he was undeniably handsome. You blushed and looked away. At least you can blame it on the lack of sleep. You blamed a lot of things on lack of sleep since it was a very convenient excuse. 

“Wow, I’ve never seen anyone actually order more caffeine in one drink than her,” Julia commented with a laugh and gestured over to you. You smile tiredly at her, then turn to the guy next to you. 

“Rough night?” he asks, offering you a tired smile back. You realized that he probably actually looked more tired than you, which momentarily stunned you. 

“Rough life,” you say back nonchalantly, then go back to chewing on your pen. A bad habit of yours. 

“Are you a student?” he asks after a moment, probably looking down at the careful notes that you were taking from the book on the table. You were honestly surprised. Most people in Gotham were too wary to strike up conversation. Particularly around these parts late at night. He probably wanted something from you. 

“Yeah…” you said a little suspiciously, but he didn’t seem to notice. 

“Oh, cool. What are you majoring in?” he asked, still seemingly oblivious, but he looked genuinely interested. You got the feeling that he wasn’t around other people much, but not in a bad way. In the sort of naive way that said that he still trusted random people on the street to not beat and rob him. It was kind of cute if you were being honest. You rattled off your degrees and what you were working on. He seemed impressed. 

“Wow, you seem a little young for all that,” he said without thinking, then visibly looked like he regretted it. 

You laughed and said, “It doesn’t take that long when you have 30 plus credits per term.”

“30?! Is that even possible?”

“It is when I get about one night of sleep per week,” you say, then raise your cup to him and take a deep drink. 

“I hear that,” he chuckles and takes a drink of his own drink. It’s silent for long enough that you feel the need to either say something or blow him off completely, but he seemed nice enough. 

“What about you?” you ask, aware that it’s a pretty open-ended question. 

“I’m not a student. I just have a job that keeps me up a lot,” he confesses and that catches your interest. 

“What sort of job is it?” you asked immediately and he seems startled by your question. You realize that you sounded pretty pushy and then feel a strange urge to explain yourself. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to pry there. It’s just that I know my soulmate doesn’t get a lot of sleep and I’ve been trying to figure out why.”

“How do you know that they don’t get a lot of sleep?” he asks curiously.

“That’s our bond. I can’t hit REM sleep unless they’re also asleep. So the doctors say. Literally all that I know about him is that the guy has some serious issues with counting sheep,” you say dryly and take another sip of sweet sweet caffeine. 

“Huh, I’ve never heard of a bond like that before,” he says thoughtfully. 

“Yeah, it’s not even that uncommon, but it’s _usually_ not a problem because people _usually_ sleep eight hours at a time even if they’re in different time zones, but not this fucker. I got like 20 hours of sleep in July, and then there was September where I swear it was all just thirty minute naps every 2 hours. If I ever find this asshole I am strapping him down to a bed, and not in the fun way,” you started babbling and then realized what you had just said and closed your mouth tight. You swear you could feel your entire face turn red all at once.

But he just laughed, and you couldn’t help the fact that you noticed how handsome he was all over again. When he could stop laughing he looked at you and said, “Well, he could be a cop or something. They’re always up at odd hours and there’s plenty of work to do in Gotham.”

“Maybe. Are you a cop then?” You weren’t entirely convinced that any cop in Gotham was going to have the dedication to stay up like that for the job. 

“I guess you could say so. I work with them,” he said, not really giving an answer, but you weren’t about to push again. Then he cocked his head to the side, like he was listening to something while you watched him curiously. “Well, I gotta go. Duty calls. It was nice meeting you…?” 

“Y/N,” you supplied helpfully. 

“Tim.” He shook your hand and gave you one last smile before he strode out of the shop. You sighed and got back to your homework, wishing idly for the billionth time that someone would just punch the lights out of your soulmate so that you could finally get some rest. 

\---

Tim climbed into the car that Dick had pulled up to the coffee shop, still thinking about the conversation that he had with the girl. He hadn’t ever really thought too hard about his soulmate, or lack thereof. There were never any obvious signs that he even had one, but sometimes the bonds that form were so obscure that people never found them, so it wasn’t really anything that he was too worried about. He was far too worried about his work and keeping Gotham safe than he was about finding his soulmate to be honest.

“Whatcha thinking about, babybird?” Dick asked him after a moment of silence. 

“Have you ever heard of a soul bond where they can only sleep when the other one is?” Tim asked.

“Yeah, those aren’t terribly uncommon. Though, it’s really not a good one for finding your soulmate I’ve heard. Not enough information to go on. Why?” Dick asked conversationally, though it was obvious that he was curious. 

“I just met a girl in the coffee shop who’s bond is like that.” Tim shrugged. There was no real reason for him to be fixating on this like he was. He just couldn’t get her light laugh out of his head. Or the way she looked when she had blushed furiously at her own words. Or all of her dry comments about her soulmate. He was just going to chalk it up as lack of sleep and call it that. 

Dick seemed to have other plans, though, as he immediately stopped the car in the abandoned street. 

“Whoa, what if that was your soulbond?” Dick asked excitedly. Tim’s seeming lack of interest in even figuring out what kind of bond he had had always seemed to confuse Dick, since he was happily dating his soulmate, Kori. His had been easy, though. Her name had been written on his wrist since birth and there’s really not a lot of people out there with that name. 

“It’s not. I’ve never had trouble sleeping when I want to,” Tim said dismissively. 

“But let’s just think about this for a second. You sleep like maybe twice a month. Maybe you don’t have trouble sleeping because they’re just about as dead on their feet as you and will take any sleep that they can get. They’re not going to be the ones to be keeping you awake,” Dick argued. “What if you just met your soulmate in there? Eh?”

Tim sighed, “The chances of that are--”

“I know you know the math, but it happens, right? We should go back and--”

“No. I have like 20 leads to catch up on tonight and then I’m going to the WE meeting tomorrow morning, with patrol with B tomorrow night. I don’t have time to waste on a ‘probably not’,” Tim insisted stubbornly and finished his coffee. 

“That poor, poor girl,” Dick muttered, but then didn’t press the issue and drove straight home. 

As per his words, Tim stayed up doing research on leads until it was time to go to the board meeting. He kept a continuous stream of coffee going throughout the entire thing, but by the time that he was suiting up again for patrol that night, he found himself yawning deeply. Bruce, of course, didn’t miss this. 

“If you need to sit out of this one I’ll go ahead without you,” he said, voice gruff. 

“No, I’ll be fine. Just a little tired. Nothing to be worried about,” Tim responded, kicking himself for letting it show. 

“Alright.” Bruce was never one for a lot of words. 

Patrol that night was mostly uneventful. That is, until they found themselves stumbling into an all out gang war. They had heard the tip from some small time arms dealers that they had shaken information from. There was something big going down in old town Gotham. When they arrived, it was to a giant gunfight in the middle of one of the buildings. That wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if not for the many squatters inhabiting the building. People were screaming and grabbing their children, trying desperately to get out of the way of the violence. Batman and Red Robin sprung into action. 

“Civilians.” Batman didn’t have to say anything else to let Tim know what to do. He immediately headed out for the ones struggling in the middle and pulled them out of the line of fire, blocking a few bullets with his cape. After that he turned and took care of a gunman who had the bright idea of sneaking up behind him. Honestly, they were so untrained he probably could have done it with his eyes closed. Actually, closing his eyes did sound really good about now…

No. Tim shook his head to clear his thoughts and wake himself up. Losing focus during a mission was one of the best ways of getting yourself killed. He zoned in on throwing more birdarangs at the attackers that had by now all switched their focus from trying to kill each other to trying to kill them. Tim continued to shield the civilians as they retreated and they were almost all saved when he realized his mistake. 

The building, which had already been old when it was the heart of Gotham city, was taking too much damage from the bullets that were being shot wildly in hopes of hitting him or Batman. Tim should have been thinking of this, should already have planned for it and gotten out of the way, but he was almost dead on his feet from fatigue. He spotted one last woman scrambling to get out of the building, but she was running into the part that was already groaning in protest and threatening to collapse into itself. Tim didn’t waste any more time thinking and sprung into action. Using his grappling hook on the sturdiest bit of roof that he could find, he swung over, catching the woman just before a large beam could fall on her and shoved her outside of the building, but he was just a second too late. 

The building came down with the sounds of groaning wood and sharp crashes. Tim was completely engulfed in debris and through the burst of sound and the ringing in his ears he distinctly remembered one single crack that sent pain blossoming up his right arm. He didn’t really even have time to register what happened when Batman was there, lifting a large beam to get down to him. 

“Robin!” He heard Bruce cry out in alarm and he struggled to turn over and assess himself. All things considered that could have been a lot worse, he thought to himself. Bruce came to grab him with that same look of terror in his eyes that he always had when Tim got hurt. Nobody wanted another Jason. Tim felt vaguely guilty, he should know better than to go out tired and get hurt on the job.

“I’m okay,” Tim said, through clenched teeth. “The woman?”

“She got away fine,” Bruce answered, helping Tim up and looking him over. Tim gingerly felt his right arm. Yep. Definitely broken. He was not going to hear the end of this. 

“Let’s go home.”

Three hours later, Tim was laying in bed, with a full cast on one arm, several stitches over the rest of him, and a headache that could split rocks. Back at the cave, Dick and Alfred had worried over him like he was still a child, while Bruce had done his silent brooding thing that happened whenever one of them got hurt. Damian had rolled his eyes and told him that he was stupid, while Jason had just shrugged and left the room. The girls had been out on another mission. 

Tim was still beating himself up over the whole thing. It should never have happened and now he was going to be out of commission for a couple of weeks at least. Dick had basically dragged him into the bed and commanded that he go to sleep. Tim wouldn’t even be surprised if Dick was still standing outside, making sure that Tim was following orders. He groaned in frustration, but finally let himself close his eyes. Sleeping was supposed to make you heal faster, after all. 

For the next two weeks it seemed like he did nothing but sleep. Or lay in bed worrying about the increasingly large to do list that he was putting together in his head. Everyone was telling him to relax and let them handle things, but he trusted them with his work about as far as he could throw them, which was exactly zero in this stupid cast. They even shooed him out of the office when he tried to do work that wasn’t even dangerous. Bruce had taken over his jobs at WE, probably still feeling guilty that he had let Tim go out on patrol. The result was that he was going out of his mind with boredom. Curse having a family that cared about his well-being. 

He guessed that the one upside about this whole thing was that he was well-rested for the first time in about a year. He had almost forgotten what that had felt like. It was nice, but he was certainly itching to get back to his old life. Back to actually feeling like he was making a difference and helping people. That restlessness was what had him going out, insisting in his head that he needed fresh air away from all of them to keep healing. He was almost there, just a few days away from getting his cast off. He snuck into the garage and was picking a car when he heard footsteps behind him. 

“Going somewhere babybird?” It was Dick. Tim immediately wanted to hit something in frustration. Nothing was secret when you lived with all of the world’s greatest detectives. 

“Just out for a drive. I feel like I haven’t seen Gotham in forever,” Tim tried to sound innocent and then sighed. As soon as he had heard the footsteps he knew that he wasn’t going to be able to get what he wanted. 

“Great! I’ll drive then!” Dick chirped happily, not giving any room for argument as he climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car. “You can’t drive with a broken wing.”

Tim sighed again, but got into the car. 

“Anywhere in particular you wanna go?” Dick asked, glancing at him from the side. Tim immediately became suspicious.

“I didn’t have anything in mind,” Tim finally answered. Dick usually got his way. With everything. And you usually couldn’t even be mad about it because the guy was so likable. 

“Great. I know just the spot then!” Dick pulled out of the driveway and raced down the streets of Gotham. 

\---

Three weeks. You had gotten three weeks of blissful, uninterrupted sleep. You thanked the universe for this good luck, and hoped that your soulmate had finally realized the error in his ways. Just in case he didn’t, though, you took every opportunity that you had for naps and sleep, knowing that at any time you could go back to the old pattern of late nights and too much caffeine.

It was too late for you on that front, though. You’d cut back on the coffee in favor of sleep, but you were still hopelessly addicted to it and found yourself back at the coffee shop more than you would like. Oh well, it was a good place to get some neglected homework done while your soulmate was still awake. Also, the barista usually didn’t care if you put your head down and slept. Not that that was a great idea in Gotham, especially in the evening like it was now. The place was surprisingly crowded for a Wednesday and that made you on edge. The crowd tonight looked rougher than usual too and something about the unease in the room had you packing up your things before you even had your second coffee. In Gotham, you learned to trust your instincts like that. 

You were saying goodbye to Julia and you pulled your bag tighter over your shoulder when two new customers walked in right in front of you. You all stopped in shock and stared each other down for a moment. You were about to brush by and keep getting the fuck out of there, but then you realized that you knew one of them. Well, sorta. You wouldn’t even have recognized him, except for the fact that you remembered how handsome you had found him when you first met. You had found yourself thinking about the not-quite-stranger from time to time. You chastised yourself for that, but held back your blush and greeted him, wondering if he would remember you. 

“Tim, right?” you asked, then looked over at his companion and groaned inwardly. He was just about as handsome, but clearly older. He was looking between you and Tim with a polite smile. 

“Right… Y/N,” Tim cleared his throat and said, then turned to give the man next to him a murderous glare. The other man just shrugged, then gracefully offered you his hand. 

“It seems you two know each other already. I’m Dick Grayson,” he introduced himself. 

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” you laughed awkwardly. “We just ran into each other once. I think we were both so tired that it was a miracle that we got through a whole conversation.”

Tim finally stopped glaring at Dick long enough to give you a better look. “You look a lot better,” he commented without thinking. You looked confused for a moment when he decided to add, “As in, like you finally got some sleep. Did you end up tying your soulmate to that bed?” He seemed like the one off-balance this time. You could swear that you saw him turning red. It was actually adorable. Dick seemed like he wasn’t paying attention for a moment, looking at something behind you. 

You blushed as well, but then threw your head back and laughed. “Of course you would remember that. No, I don’t know what happened, but I’ve been finally able to get some sleep for once. It’s really weird.”

Dick seemed to focus back into the conversation. “You’re the sleep soulmate girl, huh? And you say you’ve actually been getting some rest lately? Huh, seems like a pretty big coincidence. Tim here has gotten more rest in the past three weeks than he has all year too. Ever since he got this.” He tapped the cast around Tim’s arm that you had somehow failed to notice until now. 

Tim actively rolled his eyes and glared at Dick again. You started to understand what was going on here. Dick obviously believed that Tim was going to turn out to be your soulmate. As if you’d ever get that lucky. 

“Y/N, I’m really sorry about my brother. He gets these ideas in his head--”

“What time did you wake up this morning?” you asked, interrupting him, and they both seemed shocked. “What? Might as well confirm, right? Nothing like interrogating a random stranger about being your soulmate,” you laughed and gave them a wink. “But like seriously, the chances of that are--”

“7:30. My alarm rang then. I’d gotten 8 full hours on the dot,” Tim answered, also smiling and obviously humoring you. You narrowed your eyes, remembering waking up then and wanting to sleep in more. 

“Okay, common time, but then I took a nap around 2 or so,” you said. There was no way…

“And that lasted about three more hours until I got bored,” Tim continued on in a quiet voice. You both stared at each other for a moment of stunned silence. Dick’s smile kept growing by the second. 

"That's when my alarm rang. I have class at 5:30 that I needed to get to." Another stunned silence.

“Coincidence?” You offered, still not wanting to believe it. 

“No way. See, Tim? I told you that it happens,” Dick basically sang, he seemed so happy. You noticed dryly that he seemed like he was enjoying this the most out of the three of you. Wait, something just occurred to you.

“Fuck,” you said out loud before you could stop yourself. They both looked at you questioningly. You sighed and continued, “I was so happy when I was getting enough sleep, but if it’s only because you got hurt then I am such an asshole.” 

Dick belted out a laugh and Tim glared at him again like he really wished that his older brother wasn’t standing right here for this. You couldn’t blame him. Then he turned and smiled guiltily at you and said, “Don’t worry about that. If this is real then I'm probably the asshole for keeping you up all the time. I swear I don’t have problems with counting sheep, I’ve just been really busy.”

You blushed, remembering your stupid rant that you had gone on about how much you hated your soulmate. “I’m sorry--”

You were interrupted by a loud crack. It took you a second or two to realize that it was a gunshot. It took way less time for Tim and Dick, though. It seemed like you were shoved behind them before the sound even ended. It had been close, your ears were ringing. You looked up from where you were standing to see that someone from inside the shop had the barista by the wrist, pointing a handgun right in her face. The first shot must’ve been a warning shot straight into the air. You watched as several other customers in the place pulled out similar looking guns and were waving them around as the rest of the people cowered in their seats. The man holding Julia began to talk. 

“If you don’t have the money to pay off the Triads for their generous protection, then we’ll have to take it from your dear customers. Everyone line up against that wall. No funny business or--” he looked down at her nametag, “Julia gets it.”

You were still in shock, but you felt a tug on your arm and you realized that Tim had been holding it. Probably how you had ended up on the other side of him. You took a breath and looked him in the eyes. You probably seemed scared, because he looked at you like he was trying to reassure you. He gave you another gentle tug and the two of you plus Dick were walking slowly to the wall that the thug had indicated, with your hands up, like the rest of the people in the shop. 

When you got to the wall you saw that one of them was going down the line with a bag, and everyone was reluctantly putting anything they had of value into it. Getting robbed in Gotham was just another Tuesday to most people, but you had managed to avoid this up until now. The man was going to reach you first.

“Everything you have, right here darling,” he drawled when he was in front of you. 

You made sure to keep your breathing even, though your heart was beating a million times a minute when the gun in his hand was trained on you. Beside you, you felt Tim stiffen. You pulled out your wallet with shaky hands and dropped it in. You didn’t have any more than a few bucks in there, but he didn’t have to know that. 

“That everything? What’s in that bag of yours? Looks heavy,” he asked, stepping closer. He pushed some hair out of your face with the barrel. 

“Unless you want textbooks and paper, yes, that’s everything,” you said, just wanting to get him out of your space. It came out a little more sharply than you had intended. He narrowed his eyes and looked like he was about to say something, but then he caught sight of Tim and Dick standing beside you. 

“Whoa this might be our lucky day fellas. Take a look at this,” the guy called out and immediately the entirety of the shop was focused on them. The lead guy let go of the barista and walked over to see what was happening. He paused and then smiled evilly when he saw who was in front of him. 

“Well, if it isn’t the Wayne boys. What are you doing this far south, your mansion is uptown,” he teased, though now he looked excited. “I’m glad you stopped by for a visit tonight, you can help these poor people pay up their debts for a year. Call it a part of your generous Wayne charities. Give all you’ve got. Now.” He pointed the gun right in Tim’s face and you panicked. That would be just your luck to meet your soulmate and then watch him die within the hour. When you glanced at him, though, he didn’t seem all that concerned. He reached into his pocket and then took out a wallet and handed it to the man, who opened it greedily. He took out all of the cash and then threw the wallet over his shoulder. Then he did the same with Dick. 

“Hmmm, so much for the famed Wayne generosity. This will hardly cover what we came here for in the first place. I know you can do better than that,” the man said, shuffling through the bills. More money than you’d probably seen in your lifetime. You idly wondered why they were carrying so much cash with them in Gotham like idiots.

“Let’s take them. I bet daddy will pay whatever we’re asking to get them back,” another man said, sounding excited now. 

“Nah,” the leader said after a second of deliberation. “Too much trouble.” You let out a sigh of relief that it didn’t seem like they were going to hurt Tim, but then you felt his large hand wrap around your arm and yank you forward into him. “Let’s take their girl. Easier to control.”

You attempted to step back from him, but his hand was like a vice. You lifted your head to see him smiling down at you. He smelled like liquor, cigarettes, and sweat. “And at least then if we don’t get our pay, there are other methods of compensation.”

Your blood ran cold at the way that he was staring at you, and you heard a disturbance behind you. You twisted as much as you could in his grip to see what was going on. 

Dick was holding back an enraged looking Tim. It looked like he was ready to fight all of the thugs in the place, even with one arm in a cast. You silently thanked Dick for protecting him from what was surely suicide. How had you not realized that they were the Wayne brothers? Especially when Dick Grayson gave his full name. 

“Don’t worry. You’ll see her again soon,” the man drawled and then began dragging you away from them. “As long as you follow the instructions that we give you.” You didn’t struggle, just turned one last time before leaving to get a good look at Tim, just in case. He looked livid. You gave him what you hoped was a brave smile before you left. There was no saying what was going to happen next. 

\---

Tim started struggling again as soon as you were out of sight, but Dick held him tight. There were still others in the shop holding guns to them, probably making sure that their leader got a clean getaway. They didn’t want to get anyone innocent killed, and they definitely didn’t want to reveal their identities. For now they’d just have to sit tight for a moment and wait for the thugs to leave. Dick didn’t blame Tim, though. Watching someone drag away your soulmate from you was one of the worst feelings in the world. Especially when she was just a civilian and didn’t have any way of defending herself. Dick didn’t have to worry about that with Kori, but that must’ve been torture for his little brother. 

After what seemed like forever, the rest of the gunmen all left, having gotten what they came for. Dick let go of Tim and they both ran outside and jumped into the car that they came in. 

“B. We’ve got a problem,” Dick said into his comm. 

“B’s not at the phone right now, may I take a message?” Jason’s voice came back. It sounded like his mouth was full. Tim looked like he wanted to tear Jason’s eyes out. Dick put a calming hand on his shoulder. They didn’t need to waste any time right now. 

“Where is he then?” Tim asked through gritted teeth. 

“Whoa, hold your horses there replacement. He got called out by the League. Something about blowing up the sun. You know, the usual.” Jason was not helping. 

“Jason, we’re coming to you. There was a kidnapping at the coffee shop we were at. Triads. They took Tim’s soulmate,” Dick said, figuring that they might as well get that over with. Tim shot him a glare, but still said nothing.

“They took who?” It was Damian. He must be there in the cave with Jason. 

“No one. Drake doesn’t have a soulmate, because he doesn’t have a soul. He uses coffee as a substitute,” Jason says through the comms. 

“Shut up, asshole. This is serious,” Tim snapped in a way that actually made them all silent for a second. 

“What was the bond?” Damian asked, sounding like curiosity got the better of him. 

Dick looked at Tim, who now had his face in his hands. They knew that he had to tell them one way or another or they would never get anything done. 

“It was a sleeping bond,” Dick finally said when Tim remained silent. 

After a shocked moment, Damian began laughing and Jason just let out an appreciative whistle and said, “Poor girl.”

“Can we focus here?” Tim asked into the comms. 

There was a grunting sound and then Damian stopped laughing. Jason probably punched Damian to get him to stop. “Why’d they take her?” Jason asked and Tim was relieved that they were finally going to take this seriously. 

“They recognized us and wanted money,” Dick explained. “Keep an eye out for ransom demands.”

“We know where the Triads hang out, we should go there now,” Tim complained.

“Not without a plan, supplies, and a pretty big distraction. If they get wind of something wrong then I don’t like Y/N’s chances,” Dick said dryly, giving Tim a hard look. They didn’t need to be charging in thoughtlessly right now. 

“Fine,” Tim said, crossed his arms and was silent for the rest of the ride back to the manor. 

\---

As soon as you were out of the shop, they stuffed a bag over your head and loaded you into a car. You just focused on taking deep breaths and telling yourself that there was no use panicking now. You needed to focus on surviving. And possibly escape. In that order. If they were actually the Waynes, which you were pretty sure they were, they could probably afford whatever ransom the Triads asked of them, but on the other hand, you had met both of them for probably a grand total of twenty minutes. You didn’t know them well enough to know whether they would pay up, soulmate or not. 

You were silent for the entire ride, which seemed just fine for them. When you got to your destination you were none too gently forced out of the car and led into what you assumed was a building. You still had the bag over your head so it was hard to see anything. They ripped it off when you stopped and you had to blink a few times to regain your vision in the light. When you did, you saw that you were in what looked like a repurposed warehouse. There were shitty couches all around a big TV and pool tables and workout equipment. A fully stocked bar and a few black vans. Basically everything you thought of as a stereotypical bad guys base.

“Let’s see if you got anything interesting, baby,” the leader said and let go of your arm only to pat you down roughly. It was actually less of a pat down and more of a pawing. He took his sweet time and you turned your face away, feeling absolutely disgusted, but not allowing yourself to say anything in fear that it would only make him angry. If you had nothing nice to say…

“Why so quiet babe?” Another man said, opening up a beer right behind you and almost gulping it down in one swig. “We don’t bite. Much. Normally they’d be screaming and fighting by now. It doesn’t do anything, but at least it’s entertaining.”

“Cut it, Snake,” the leader said. “Put her in the usual spot. No one touches her without my say-so. I’ve got a few calls to make.”

The leader and a couple more men led you to a support beam in the middle of the open room. There were already chains around it and they roughly shoved your hands into handcuffs at the ends. You could stand up and move a little bit, but the cuffs dug into the skin of your wrists. 

“No one’s gonna pay for me. I’m not ‘their girl’ so you can just forget it,” you called after the leader, who turned to walk up to you, fury in his eyes. You regretted saying anything and were rewarded with a sharp slap across the face. It surprised you more than hurt, but you tasted blood on your lip. You tried not to let anything show, but you felt tears leak down your face involuntarily. You sighed and sat down with your back to the pillar. There was not a lot to do now but wait. And the later it got the more tired you were getting now that you were used to full nights of sleep and had failed to have your usual amount of caffeine. You let yourself wonder, just for a little bit, what Tim was up to. 

\---

“Alright, everyone got their parts?” Dick asked one more time, making everyone groan. They were all professional vigilantes, of course they could remember a plan. Especially a simple one like this. They had gotten the ransom call hours after Dick and Tim had gotten home. Tim had been pacing, wound tight the whole time like he was going to snap any moment. When Dick had suggested that he get some rest while they were waiting Tim had just shook his head and just said, "She's not sleeping." That had shut Dick up. Of course the gang was asking for a big chunk of change from the Waynes and to not go to the police, but they had no intention of doing either of those things. Instead, Damian strapped on his katana while Dick put on his domino mask and Jason assembled the last of his guns. Tim flexed his fingers under the cast and cursed his broken arm for about the millionth time. He still had an important part to play, though. 

They all left the cave at the same time, though through a couple different vehicles. Tim was driving one of Bruce’s more expensive cars to put on a show. He was going to be the distraction. Pretend to pay the ransom, then the rest would go in and he would grab her and get the hell out of there. The plan was to get there a little late though, to give the rest of them time to strike positions and to make the bad guys sweat. For once, Tim almost agreed with Jason and Damian when they suggested that they just kill everyone inside quick and easy. The little smile that Y/N had tried to give him as she was being dragged out of the place kept replaying in his mind. There was no way that they were going to take his soulmate from him. Not when he just just met her. 

“Arriving now. There’s about five armed guards outside. I’m climbing up to the second story window to get a better look inside,” Jason’s voice came through the comm. Tim continued to drive slowly, though it was just about killing him. 

“I’m around back. There’s three more out here, but they’re already distracted. Shouldn’t be a problem,” Dick’s voice chimed in. 

Damian, probably trying to be like Batman, just grunted to let them know that he was in position, causing Tim to roll his eyes. 

“Window’s open, I can get audio,” Jason said and then they heard the sound of pacing. “There’s our girl, right in the middle. She’s way too pretty for you, Red.”

“Guards?” Tim asked impatiently, wanting to get to the point. 

“There’s 11 in total. A full house. Not all of them have weapons on them, but I can see a pretty big stash in the corner. Couldn’t your girlfriend have the decency to get kidnapped by a less supplied gang?”

Tim chose to ignore that. They all listened in when the audio started. 

“What, are they late or something?” It was her voice, sounding a little bit shaken, but steady. 

“Shut up,” a familiar voice commanded. The leader who had taken her. 

“I told you that no one was going to come. I literally don’t know them, we just happened to be in the same coffee shop at the same time. Nothing that would make them want to pay the large ransom that I’m sure you asked for.” As she talked it seemed like she was getting more confident. 

“I said shut the fuck up. Do you have a death wish or something? If no one pays for you then you’re obviously as good as dead,” the man drawled, sounding agitated. 

“No, I think that you should let me go in that case.”

The man barked out some surprised laughter and the sound of footsteps stopped. “Why the hell would I do that?”

“Because you have nothing to gain from keeping me here.”

“Oh really?”

Jason made a sort of low growl that Tim interpreted as ‘you don’t want to see what just happened’. He drove a little faster. There was no way that she was going to be able to talk her way out of this. 

“Really. I’m not just some runaway that can disappear without a trace. I’m a top student at the University. People will notice that I’m gone. Hell, a whole coffee shop watched the Triads take me out of the place. It’ll make Gotham U look bad, which in turn will increase the funding for student security, which will tighten patrols along your turf. I can see the headlines now: ‘Top Student Disappears, City Funding District-Wide Manhunt for Criminals Responsible’. I bet that if the Waynes are feeling guilty they might even help fund it. Famous Wayne generosity.” There was a sort of ironic sarcasm dripping from her tone when she said that. There was a moment of silence where it seems like everyone was stunned. That was actually an okay argument, as begging for your life went.

“Damn, this girl’s got some balls, I’ll give her that,” Jason murmured through the comms. “You here yet, Timbers?”

“Almost,” Tim said, ignoring the casual use of his name over the comms. It really sounded like she didn’t believe that anyone was coming for her. 

“Not good enough? Well, how about this one. If I am connected to the Waynes like you seem to think, then you’ll be in even bigger trouble. Everyone knows that Bruce Wayne has connections to the Bat,” she said after the silence had stretched too long. Damian made a slightly surprised breath that they could all hear. 

“What?” the leader sounded baffled, like that was the last thing that he expected to hear. To be fair, it was the last thing that any of them expected to hear too. 

“Well, anyone with eyes I guess.” Tim could almost hear her rolling her eyes. “Is it really worth it to get tangled up with _him_? You should just let me go so that we can all forget that this thing ever happened.”

“You…” The man sounded unsure, like he was debating about actually letting her go. 

“Up there!” There was a random shout, followed by gunshots and the sound of glass breaking. 

“Shit!” It was Damian. He had probably been spotted. The kid was good, but too new and reckless. Tim gunned the engine, taking the car the last bit of the way at top speed as the sounds of fighting filled his ears. He skidded to a stop right outside the warehouse door, ducking to avoid the bullets hurled his way by the guards out front. With very little concern for his own safety, he barreled into the building. 

Jason was standing in front of the pillar with Y/N handcuffed behind him. He had both guns out and was shooting kneecaps and arms with a marksman’s precision. Y/N was staring at his back, obviously terrified. A bullet bounced off the pillar, near her head. She screamed and ducked down, her eyes locked onto something in front of her. Tim followed her gaze to see the leader, on the ground clutching his leg and screaming in agony. A flash of light caught his eye though and he saw what had her so focused. The pair of handcuff keys hanging around his belt. 

Tim took off running, counting on the others to have his back. He reached the pillar in record time and was immediately jumped by the leader, who had gotten over the initial shock of being shot. There was a short struggle, but it wasn’t too hard to wrestle the larger man to the ground and give him a good kick that would send him straight to unconsciousness. He deftly reached down and grabbed the keys off of him and turned to his soulmate. She was looking at him with wide eyes, her lips formed his name, but no sound came out. He got to work uncuffing her. 

“Are you hurt?” he asked, his hands closing gently around her now-freed wrists as he studied the mark on her face. She shook her head, still too shocked to speak. “Let’s go, then,” he commanded and pulled her to her feet. A quick scan of the room showed that the majority of the fighting was going on near the front exit. He pulled her toward that back, confident that Dick had done his job and cleared that out for their escape. 

It was all going well until Tim felt Y/N yank on his arm, enough to throw him off-balance. He immediately turned toward her, fearing the worst, but as he turned he saw a large throwing knife buried deep into the crate behind him, where he would have been. He looked behind her to see a henchman that Dick had apparently missed, aiming another knife. Tim was faster, pulling out two birdarangs that he had concealed on him and flicking his wrist to throw them. One buried itself deep into the man's arm, causing him to scream in pain and drop the knife. The other one was deflected by the knife and clattered to the ground, skidding back toward them. He could tell that she had gotten a good look at what it was when she murmured, “Well, that explains that.” He just tightened his grip on her arm and pulled her back into a run again, not letting her catch her breath. 

They broke out of the warehouse and into the early morning air. They ran past a couple more unconscious men, courtesy of Dick, and didn’t stop until they were at the designated safe spot. When he finally let go of her she immediately bent over with her hands on her knees, breathing harshly. He wasn’t sure if she was going to throw up or not. Either way, he moved closer to her and gently rubbed her back in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. In reality he was just keeping the contact with her, almost as if assuring himself that she was real. 

“That was crazy,” she eventually said once she could form words. She stood up straight and looked at him. “You’re-- You just-- But--” 

“Slow down and breathe, Y/N,” Tim said. She was obviously in shock. He wished he had a blanket or something to wrap her up in as she shivered in the chilly air. Tentatively, she took a step toward him, and when he didn’t move away she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. He was surprised for a moment, but then returned the hug. He could feel her face wet with tears. She was obviously letting all the fear and pain of the night out and he was content to let her. 

“Whoa, we’re not interrupting anything here, are we?” It was Dick’s voice. All three of his brothers turned onto the alleyway. 

“Nope,” Tim said, still just enjoying the feeling of holding his soulmate for the first time. 

She pulled back from him with a small “sorry” and rubbed at her eyes, taking a few deep breaths. When she opened them, it was to Damian pointing his katana at her threateningly. 

“How did you know that Bruce Wayne is Batman? Who are you working for?” he demanded. All three other boys groaned. 

“Bruce Wayne is Batman?” you repeated, a little shocked. Then you looked around at them and nodded. “I guess that makes sense, doesn’t it.”

“But you told him that you knew--”

“That Bruce Wayne was connected to Batman, not that he was Batman, you little shit,” Jason said.

“It’s not that hard to figure it out, really,” she said. “Not if you think about it for a little bit. Anything goes wrong anywhere near the man, and about ten vigilantes spring into action.”

“Well, she’s not wrong,” Tim said, dryly, still a little disappointed that she had pulled out of the hug. Being near a soulmate had been described to him many times, but it wasn’t until now that he really understood. “I figured it out when I was five.”

“Oh man, he’s got like 15 years on you. Feel smart now, miss ‘Top University Student’?” Jason teased, and she was looking at him like she was trying to figure out who he was. Tim realized that he hadn’t taken off the helmet yet. That was going to be a fun one to explain. After a second she seemed to give up. 

“Oh, the shame. Now I know that I must take up a life of crime and be forever locked in a battle of wits with Timothy Drake to prove who is superior,” she said dramatically. There was a second of silence where everyone just stared at her warily. She looked around and then just groaned. “That was supposed to be a ridiculous joke.”

“I’ve seen weirder things happen, it’s Gotham,” Dick said, nonchalantly. 

“Same.”

“Same.”

“Same.” They all agreed. 

She shook her head in disbelief. “Your guy’s lives are crazy.”

They all just shrugged.

“So, babybird has a soulmate now? How exciting! Welcome to the family, kid!” Dick said fondly and ruffled her hair. She threw a confused look at Tim and he just looked helplessly back. There really was no changing Dick. 

“Speaking of soulbonds, how the hell do you survive on this idiot's sleep schedule?” Jason asked curiously. Somewhere in the conversation he had lit a cigarette.

“With lots of coffee,” she answered. “Though I suppose that as excuses for nearly driving your soulmate insane go, being one of the ‘Saviors of the City’ isn’t terrible.” She shot Tim a look that clearly said that that wasn’t a good excuse, either. He swallowed guiltily. 

“Let’s go back to the manor. Get some rest. Oh! You have to meet B. I’m sure he’ll love you,” Dick chattered and they all went toward their different vehicles. Tim grabbed her hand to let her know that she was with him. She still seemed really overwhelmed by everything and he couldn’t blame her. She had, within the span of one night, found her soulmate, been kidnapped and held for ransom, been saved by vigilantes, and learned all of their secret identities. He thought she was taking it rather well, all things considered. 

\---

“And here’s the upstairs guest bedroom that you can use,” Tim said, opening the door to a room basically as big as your entire apartment. You had only gotten the brief tour of the manor from Tim, but every room had taken your breath away. You didn’t feel like you belonged at all here, so you’d kept a tight grip on Tim, reminding you of why you were here at all. He didn’t seem to mind. Dick had somehow convinced you to stay until the next night at least. You made a mental note to be careful around that one or else you’d be swept into his current. “There’s a shower and I can lend you some clothes… if you want.” You didn’t even need to look at him to know that he was turning red. 

“Maybe in a bit.” You yawned. “I’m actually thinking that a nap sounds really good right now. A night of getting kidnapped can really tire a girl out.” You sat down on the bed.

“Right. Sure. Of course,” Tim said, then turned to leave, but caught himself and turned back, rubbing the back of his neck. “Right, you need me to also…” You honestly found it adorable how awkward the billionaire vigilante was being around you now. 

You grabbed his hand again and pulled him down onto the bed with you over the covers and then scooted over so that the two of you could lie face to face. He seemed to be drinking in every detail of you with his eyes and you smiled softly at him. You could no doubt also feel the invisible draw to your soulmate that had been described to you. You wanted to bury yourself into him and never let go. There were a few things that you needed to talk about first, though. Or you would if your eyes weren’t already drifting closed. 

“We really need to talk about how often a person needs to sleep,” you murmur softly. He gives you the most adorable guilty look.

“Yeah, I actually get that a lot,” he says quietly, and you just close your eyes and chuckle. 

“I’m sure you do.”

“Listen I’m sorry. If I’d have known—“

You cut him off with a frown, opening your eyes a fraction to get a look at him. “Don’t lie,” you whispered and he somehow managed to look even guiltier than before. “I get it now. All the odd hours and the late nights come with what you do. And what you do is important, it’s just that,” you bit your lip but continued on, “I was so angry with you. I couldn’t think of a possible explanation for what you were doing to me and now I can’t be angry anymore. Now I’m just... worried.” You decided that you could blame the extra sappy honesty on the fact that you could barely keep your eyes open. 

He reached a lazy hand out to trace his fingers lightly down the side of your face. “You don’t have to worry about me. I can think of a couple good reasons to come back and get some sleep now.”

Your resulting smile was swallowed up by the light touch of his lips to yours and it felt like electricity was going through you all the way down to your toes. You leaned into the kiss and he threaded his fingers into your hair, tilting your head slightly back so that he had better access. He moved to deepen the kiss, but you pulled away and then snuggled your face into his neck. 

“Nap first,” you murmured and he just chuckled and wrapped his arms around you and pulled you in closer. The arm cast was a little uncomfortable, but you could forgive him for that since that ended up being the best four hours of sleep that you ever got in your entire life. 

**Three Years Later**

You padded down the hall in nothing but one of Tim’s old t-shirts, some light sleeping shorts, and murder in your eyes. You passed Jason as he was pouring himself a cup of coffee in the kitchen. He looked up and saw you and let out a low whistle, looking you up and down. 

“Don’t give me that, Todd. Where is he?” You snapped and he put up his hands in surrender. 

“I don’t know, I swear. Check the cave.” You continued walking without another word. “Wouldn’t want to be him right now,” you could hear Jason mutter as you left the room. 

You went straight to the nearest cave entrance and shivered as you descended the steps. Summer or not it was always eerily cold in the bat cave. Bruce probably made sure of that. 

Sure enough, you found Tim sitting in front of one of the computers, still in full uniform, looking at about 10 screens at once and typing at full speed. He was so focused that you got right up behind him without him even noticing, though Dick, who was packing up the last of his gear, gave you a wary look. You crossed your arms and loudly cleared your throat. 

Tim startled and turned the chair to look at you. “Oh, um, hi Y/N. I, um, didn’t hear you come in.”

“Get your ass out of that chair and go to bed with me, _now_ Drake,” you commanded and he flinched. 

“Now‘s not really a good time. Riddler is out again on a murder spree and I know I can figure it out if I just—“

“And there’s going to be another murder _right now_ if you don’t come with me. I have my thesis defense in the morning and you’ve been promising me that I could get some sleep for _three days_.” There really must’ve been a scary look on your face, since Tim looked absolutely terrified. 

“But babe—“

“Babybird, when a beautiful woman wants to take you to bed you really shouldn’t keep her waiting,” Dick cut in with a wink. When Tim still didn’t look convinced, he sighed and continued, “I’ll take lead on this Riddler thing.”

“Thank you, Dick,” you said, keeping your focus on Tim. 

Tim was looking between the two of you helplessly as you ganged up on him. He realized that there was no winning right now and slowly stood up and stretched. You didn’t have time for this bullshit and grabbed him by the arm mid-stretch, yanking him away from the computer before he had a chance to come up with another reason to stay. 

“The answer to the first one is candles. And I’ve already looked into the zoo, it’s clean. And don’t fall for the obvious trap with the coloring books,” he called at Dick as he let you drag him away. You heard Dick chuckle as you closed the door to the cave. 

“Get some, Red,” Jason called after you as you passed him in the hallway on the way to your room. 

“Fuck off, Jason,” you both called at the same time in the same exhausted tone. 

When you got to your room Tim began the long process of stripping off his uniform, his fingers fumbling as he finally realized how tired he really was. You eventually took pity on him and helped. He collapsed onto the bed with a groan when you were finally done, then cracked an eye open after a second when you didn’t join. 

“Coming?” He asked. Your lips turned up in a mischievous smile as you pulled off your t-shirt, swung your legs over him, and placed your hands on either side of his head. His hands jumped to your hips in surprise and you lowered yourself so that your bodies were pressing together, your lips just barely brushing. 

“It’s my turn to keep you up. And give you a thorough reminder of why you should come here more often.” 

He swallowed audibly. This was going to be fun.


	2. Knight (Jason Todd)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in the Arkham game universe (mostly)
> 
> Soulmate AU - Wherever you first touch your soulmate a mark appears on both of you for life
> 
> You're a med student delivering papers to Arkham. After you take a wrong turn or two, you end up face to face with someone that the world believes to be dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really, I just wanted to write a reader-insert story where the reader finds Jason before he totally goes off the deep end in the games and helps him get better. Then it seriously got away from me. I meant for all of these to be like 10-20K words, and this turned out to be >30K. Whoops. I'll split it into two chapters for your reading convenience. 
> 
> Enjoy!

Of all of the places that you could be right now, you find yourself in Arkham. Arkham. Literally no one in their right mind wanted to be in The Elisabeth Arkham Asylum for the Criminally Insane under any circumstances. You guess that was the point. To make everything worse, once you found the right spot to deliver the papers that you were tasked with, you had been so relieved that you had relaxed and took a wrong turn on the way out. Now you weren’t just walking through one of the worst places in the world, you were lost in it. 

“Sure, send the intern on the insane delivery. She’s not doing anything else. She’ll be fine, what could happen,” you muttered to yourself, trying to find out where you’d gone wrong and retrace your steps. All you needed to do was find a door that led outside so that you could get your bearings again. You reassured yourself with the thought that all of the cells you were passing were clearly empty. Any inmates here would be under heavy guard and you hadn’t seen anyone in the longest time. 

That didn’t make it any less creepy, though. 

With each passing moment you became more and more panicked when you didn’t see an obvious way out, just rows and rows of doors with bars on them. You finally just said screw it and started running, dignity be damned. You turned a sharp corner and you saw it. At the end of the hallway was a different sort of door. One that looked like it led to a lobby, which probably led to a way out. You breathed in relief, but something else stopped you in your tracks. At the end of the hallway there was one cell door that was slightly open. You stared at it warily. Of all the doors that you’d seen just now (which was really a lot), all of them had been shut and locked up tight. You got a strange feeling of dread looking at the slightly ajar door, but unless you wanted to spend another fifteen minutes wandering around this place, that was the way you needed to go. 

You began to walk again slowly, breathing slightly uneven from the sprint that you had just completed and kept your eyes forward, focused on escape. Curiosity prickled the back of your thoughts as you neared the open cell, but you told yourself firmly that that was a bad idea. Unfortunately the universe had other ideas for you. 

As you were passing the ominous cell in question, you heard something. Just a small sound, but the last twenty minutes had been complete silence, save for the buzz of old lights and your footsteps, so the sound might as well have been an alarm going off. It was a sharp sound, muffled, but distinct. You stopped. The need to look over and confirm what it was was all consuming. It had to be nothing, just an old building settling, nothing more. Right?

With a deep breath, you turned your head over to peer inside the offending cell, expecting the worst. At first glance the cell looked like nothing out of the ordinary. Just a bed and a toilet and a desk, all white, and all surgically clean. The one thing that stood out in the cell was the floor. A large chunk of the white tile had been cut out and leaned against the wall, leaving a gaping black hole. The sound had come from in there. There were more sounds too, now that you were closer. It sounded like… sobbing. 

On a terrible whim, you crept closer to the door, trying to confirm what you saw and heard, as if when you got closer you’d realize that it was all just a trick of the light. The sobbing sound got faintly louder. It wasn’t until you had your head sticking through the door of the cell that you realized what a bad idea this all was and snapped yourself back to reality. There was someone down there. And they didn’t seem like they were having very much fun. You needed to get the fuck out of here and call the police. You had no illusions that you were the hero to go investigate and save the day.

You pulled your head back, and almost screamed as another sound joined the otherwise nothingness. The sound of a door opening. Your head snapped to the right, but the door next to you remained undisturbed. The sound had come from that way, though, you were sure of it. Someone was in the lobby beyond that door. You heard distinctive footfalls coming from the other side to confirm your theory. They sounded like they were getting louder. Your brain went into fight or flight mode as you considered your options. This side of Arkham was obviously abandoned, no medical staff would have come through this way. It could also be someone lost, like you, though that was taking a big fucking chance considering that this was the one spot where there was activity. You could turn and run back the way that you had come from, but there was a long way to go before you could turn, they would surely spot you if they came this way. You could duck into the open cell and wait for them to pass by? But also, it was more than likely that the open cell was where they were headed anyway since it was the only thing that looked like it had been distrubed in years. Every option you had seemed bad. 

You turned and looked at the hole in the ground. When you focused you could see that it led down some rough stone steps, but the blackness quickly swallowed anything else. The sobbing was muffled and it seemed far away. Meaning that whatever was down there was big. Maybe big enough for you to find a spot to hide. It seemed like the best option so far. If the person was just an innocent pedestrian, they’d walk right by you or call the police themselves. If not, you were probably going into that hole anyway. At least you had a chance this way. You made your decision and stopped wasting time, sneaking into the room and tiptoeing down the steps into the blackness. You daren’t pull out your phone flashlight in fear that it would alert whoever was down there, so you ran your hand along the wall to steady yourself as you lost sight. The sounds of sobbing got louder. As you descended it got bone-chillingly cold. A dripping sound around you told you that you were in something like a cave?

When your eyes adjusted from the harsh lighting of the asylum, you saw that there was a faint yellow light coming from the bottom. The stairs led directly to a doorway, which was also left open. You could see that the light was provided by a single overhead lamp that pointed straight down. There were several masses that you couldn’t quite make out laying in the spotlight. 

The smell seemed to hit you all at once as you got closer. Or maybe you had just been too panicked to notice until then, but it was so bad that you weren’t sure that was even possible. It was the smell of feces and unwashed bodies and rotting food, but above all there was the smell of blood, thick and irony and overwhelming. You thought you’d gotten a strong stomach from working in the medical field, but nothing could compare to this. The blood smelled weeks old, but also… fresh? Your feet were itching to turn back, to get away from this horrid place. All your senses were screaming at you that the place in front of you was death, but there was really no turning back. Especially when you heard the echo of voices coming from where you entered. You were too far down the winding staircase for them to see you, but they were effectively cutting off your escape that way. Only one way to go now. 

As you got closer, you could make out the objects lying in the light. It was three people. The sobbing was coming from the one furthest in the room. The other two were completely still. It took your panicked brain longer than it should have to take in more details, but when you did you realized what they were wearing. The sobbing one was wearing a bright red tunic with a stylized letter ‘R’ on it, the other two were wearing Batman costumes. They were also dead. 

You covered your mouth to stifle your scream of horror when you saw the pools of fresh blood around the men. One of them was turned toward you and stared with sightless eyes and a trail of blood coming out of a hole on his forehead. You stumbled forward, falling to your knees and retching until you were sure that everything previously in your stomach was on the cave floor. 

When you could look up, you saw the third occupant of the room looking at you. His eyes were wide in fear as tears streamed out of them. In short, he looked like hell. Completely malnourished and filthy. Every inch of showing skin was covered in bruises, cuts, scars, or burns. Sometimes all four. His face was the exception, swollen from hits, but the only permanent mark on it was a perfectly branded ‘J’ on his left cheek that looked like it had either been reopened recently, or was still healing. As you crawled closer, you saw that his eyes were so dilated that you could barely tell what color they were. He was obviously on something, but it didn’t seem to be anything that you had seen before. He looked like he was terrified of you. Fear gas maybe? But that usually made people violent, which he wasn’t currently showing, though the two dead guys in front of him might disagree.

“What happened to you?” you whispered in horror, mostly to yourself as you approached him. He looked so miserable that your first and strongest instinct was to comfort him. He shied away slightly from you as you reached out, not even fully aware of what you were doing. You felt the tips of your fingers just barely brush his cheek over the brand as you said, “Shhhhh it’s gonna be okay.”

Instantly, you felt your hand heat up and begin to tingle. You almost pulled your hand away then, but he leaned into the touch, closing his eyes like it was the best thing he’d ever felt. You just stared at him in shock for a moment, brain trying to catch up with what was happening when you heard a voice, snapping you out of your thoughts. 

“Well well well, what do we have here?” the voice was singsong, too high pitched, and sounded like it was holding back laughter. Dread washed over you like a trickle of ice-cold water. You turned around to see the unmistakable form of the Joker descend the last couple of steps and lean against the door frame. Harley Quinn was just a couple of steps behind him. 

“What is it Mr. J?” she asked, her voice as grating as it was on TV. 

“Looks like our little birdy found another playmate. What? Two wasn’t enough? Such an appetite,” Joker said, then laughed. There was nothing sane about that laugh. You’d never heard that in person before and you immediately wanted to cover your ears. Just listening to it made you feel like you were losing your mind. You couldn’t even look at him and instead looked at the ground in front of you. Something shiny caught your eye. 

“Ooohhh, you sure can pick ‘em, kid. Such a pretty little plaything. What sort of fun shall we all have together, huh?” 

“Stay back!” you yelled, snatching the gun off the ground and pointing it directly at the Joker. The gun shook with your hand. It was obviously the one that had just killed the other two men in the room; it was still warm. The Joker started walking toward you slowly, hands up, his lips still upturned, letting out little giggles. 

“Now, now, dearie, let’s not do anything that we’re gonna--” 

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The kickback of the gun was surprising, but not totally unexpected. It wasn’t the first time that you had fired one, you lived in Gotham, but it was the first time that you had ever actually shot at someone. For a split second you were terrified that all three shots had missed, but that fear was short lived as the Joker immediately collapsed. An inhuman sound came out of Harley Quinn as she rushed over to the Jokers side and knelt. She kept wailing, the high pitched sound pierced your already ringing ears from the shots. 

Your brain felt like it was becoming mush as you continued to panic and you realized after a second that you were hyperventilating. You felt adrenaline coarse through your limbs, and your instincts took over. You looked over at the man next to you, who was still just watching the exchange with wide unfocused eyes. You fumbled with the gun until it was in your left hand and you saw something on your hand. Was that blood? You didn’t think that you were bleeding. You brought your hand closer to your face and saw that it wasn’t anything on your hand, it simply looked like your fingers had been dyed crimson red. You blinked a few times, sure that you were seeing things, but then another wail from the room reminded you that you had bigger problems to deal with. 

“Common, get up,” you muttered to him and grabbed the man under the shoulder to try and hoist him to his feet. You were sure that there was really no way that you were carrying him, as big as he was, malnourished or not. He needed to help you. 

Thankfully, he took to your command like he was in a trance, letting you drag him to his feet, but you were still uncomfortably holding most of his weight. You staggered under him, but managed to stay on your feet and begin to lug him over to the door. He looked like he was trying his best to keep up, but with his injuries you were just surprised that he was awake. Getting up those stairs was going to be a challenge like this. As it was, to get out you still had to pass Harley. 

“You no good, murderous, BITCH!” she yelled, looking up as you passed. “I swear I’m gonna--”

You pointed the gun at her face, which shut her up pretty quick. The glare that she was giving you was no joke, though. You urged the man in your arm to go faster. When you got him through the door you kicked it shut, if only to get away from Harley’s stare. When it was closed, you noticed that there was a padlock on the outside. You had no doubt that it was there to keep their captive in. You quickly leaned Robin against the wall to free your hand (since there was no way you were dropping the gun) and fumbled the lock into a closed position. You could hear Harley screaming and banging at the door just as you’d finished.

Thankfully Robin hadn’t fallen and you went back to him, swinging his arm around your shoulder again and urging him up the first step. He understandably didn’t seem too sure on his feet, but your adrenaline was telling you that you needed to get out of there fast. Now that you didn’t have to point the gun, you swung your arm out and wrapped both of his arms around your shoulders and held tight. This way you could take more of his vertical weight and basically drag him up the stairs on your back. It was awkward and slow, but you were making good headway when the first shot came. It pierced through the wooden door, sending splinters flying, but you didn’t feel any impact so you kept going. The shots kept coming, loud and terrifying, but you had already cleared the height of the door and were making the first turn in the staircase. You prayed to anyone that would listen that the door would hold and you wouldn’t have to deal with a pissed off clown lady with a gun. You kept going.

It felt like forever until you reached the top of the stairs, expecting the whole time to hear Harley’s, or even the Joker’s voice pop up right behind you. Instead all you heard were the low grunts of effort that the man on your back was making as he suffered from his many injuries. You held up a hand to shield your eyes from the harsh light, but everything looked like it had when you were last here. As you exited the cell you slammed that door shut too, not knowing whether it would do any good or not. The door that you were originally going for did turn out to go to a lobby. You could almost cry when you saw daylight coming from the windows, even if it was just customary Gotham rain. You might have actually cried, you were still too disoriented and high on adrenaline to notice either way. With a new strength you continued to haul your friend out the door and into the fresh air. 

“Hhhmmppphhfff,” he made a sound, and you turned your head to look at him in alarm. He had his head up toward the rain, taking deep shaky breaths. As the clean water left tracks on his dirty, bloody face, you wondered just how long it had been since he had been outside of that hell. 

“Don’t quit on me now,” you whispered to him, glancing back to the door, still terrified that you were going to be followed any second. Then you focused on in front of you, trying to figure out where to go next. Like you had guessed before, once you were outside it was pretty easy to get your bearings. You spotted the large foreboding gates of Arkham in the distance. You just needed to get over there. There were people over there, guards that could help you. You started dragging him towards the sounds of activity, when for the first time you felt resistance. You again stared back at him and he had planted his feet, not letting either of you move the way you wanted. 

“What?” you hissed, still not sure why you were whispering to him. Probably just the imminent threat of getting caught. His eyes looked clearer than they had when you were down there. It seemed that the rain and the fresh air were clearing his head a little. He used his free arm to press his hand against his chest. You directed your attention toward it and when his hand left, you saw the glaringly obvious Robin symbol slapped across his left pec. He had to be kidding. 

“Help is that way,” you urged, tugging again, but he didn’t budge. Was he seriously trying to say that he was the real Robin? He had obviously been in that pit for months and Batman and Robin had been all over the news in that time. But wait, wasn’t there a different Robin that had come before the current one? You struggled to remember. Yeah. He’d been rumored to disappear. Right after Batman had had a big confrontation with the… Joker. “Okay, fine, be that way, but we have to keep moving,” you insisted. There wasn’t a lot of time to think about this, or even confirm it. You grabbed at his ruined shirt and tugged up, but nothing really budged. You suspected that there was a series of complicated latches in the uniform that you would have to undo first. You really didn’t have the time for this. “Help me with this.”

“Stop.” At first you weren’t sure that the sound had come from him, it was so gravelly and broken and barely even sounded like a word. Then he lifted the arm and pointed. You followed the line to see a hole in the otherwise immaculate fence. Now that you were thinking about it, it was probably how Joker and Harley had gotten in in the first place; it would let them bypass the security in the front. 

Mostly because you were still terrified of being followed and it looked like it was the only direction that he would go, you gave in and started the long process of crossing the lawn to get to the indicated hole. He was gradually taking more of his weight so you made good time. Every so often you were glancing behind you again to check for pursuit. You had no doubt that Harley would find a way out eventually. You hoped it was later rather than sooner. 

You made it to the hole and it was only big enough to squeeze through one at a time. You shoved him in first, hoping that he wouldn’t just fall down without you supporting him. He made it through and turned to lean against the other side of the wall while he waited for you to get back. Outside the wall there were trees. They were all creepy and dead, but they gave you some sort of cover, even in the daylight. You could just barely see the parking lot where your car was through the trees. Getting him through this uneven ground without tripping was going to be tough. 

“My car is over there,” you pointed. His head turned in the direction, but he still said nothing, his breathing ragged. You worried that he had broken ribs. If his lung collapsed there was precious little that you could do without any supplies. Not to mention every single other injury that was covering his body. You had noticed that the spots on you where you had been carrying him were slicked with his blood. He needed to get to a hospital. Now. There was no time to wait for an ambulance. Without asking, you wrapped yourself around him again and kept going forward. He accepted it with no comment. 

It was impressive that the two of you didn’t fall. The dead roots of the trees were poking out everywhere, making it a tricky hike even if you were two functioning people and not one three-legged disaster. You did stumble hard about three times, but steadied yourself before you could tumble. You made it to the edge of the woods and peered out. It was the middle of the day. What few cars there were were abandoned. There were not many people that visited Arkham. You dragged Robin into the open, thankful that your car was parked on this side of the lot by chance. 

As you got close you were going to shove your hands in your pocket to grab the keys, but you realized that there was already something in your hand. You looked down to see the gun clutched in your fingers. You had forgotten that you were carrying it the whole way. You were shaking as you realized that your hand was not obeying your brain to let it go. You reached the car and disentangled yourself from Robin, now using your free hand to pry your fingers open and release the gun. It fell to the ground in front of your car and you immediately kicked it into the bush not too far from you. With that out of the way, you shoved your hands in your pockets, quickly retrieving your keys and unlocking the doors. You guided Robin over to the back and let him lay across the back seats. There was going to be a lot of blood in your car before this was over. 

“Alright, let’s get you to a hospital,” you said, trying to psych yourself up. You could feel some of the adrenaline wearing off and you realized how tired you were from basically carrying him all this way.

“No hospital.” The ragged, barely intelligible voice came again. You frowned. 

“You need to get to a hospital,” you insisted. “Look, you can help me strip you and then no one will find out your big secret. I’ll tell them whatever you want, but without medical attention you could die.”

“No,” you heard him rasp again. He reached out and grabbed you, his hand encircling your wrist. It honestly surprised you how firm his grip was. Strong enough to leave bruises. “No,” he repeated. You looked at him in the eyes and all you saw was pain and fear and desperation. This man really didn’t want to go to a hospital. He seemed to be looking at you expecting an answer. His grip didn’t loosen a fraction until you sighed and said, “Fine.”

You climbed into the driver’s seat and put your hands on the wheel. Realizing how badly you were shaking, you paused and took a few deep breaths. It wouldn’t be good for anyone if you were so freaked out that you crashed your car on the way. You were considering just taking him to a hospital anyway, but if this really was the missing Robin, then maybe there was a good reason for that. Maybe he had somewhere else in mind to go. Some sort of secret vigilante hospital. They had to have one, right? You turned around to ask him where he wanted you to drive him, but you found him passed the fuck out, bleeding all over your back seat. After a moment’s indecision, you started the car. You had some supplies at your apartment from med school practice. It wasn’t nearly enough, but you could stabilize him enough to keep him alive. Hopefully. 

You pulled into your spot and were, for the first time in your life, thankful that you had a floor-level apartment when you unlocked the door and threw it open, going back you realized that you'd have to drag him out of the car manually. He was still passed out as you tried to drag him toward you as gently as possible, which really wasn’t much because damn the man was heavy. He wasn’t even that big, meaning that all of his weight came from the remaining muscle in his body. You had manipulated his legs out the door and were just trying to figure out how the hell you were going to carry him when he stirred. 

“Oh thank God,” you said, cupping his face in your hands. “You gotta help me get you up. We’re almost there.”

“Where?” he asked, voice still slurred, but getting stronger whenever he used it. 

“My apartment. I’ll patch you up and you can rest for a little. Then we’ll go from there,” you said gently. He started shifting and you helped get him up and standing again. This time he was putting even more of his weight on you. Almost all of it, but you somehow managed to make it up the short walkway and into the door. Once in, you made a beeline through your messy apartment over to your bedroom and helped him lie on the bed. He groaned and his eyes rolled back into his head as he passed out again. The doctor-to-be in you took over. 

Your scissors failed to cut whatever material his uniform was made of, making the rips and tears all over it even more concerning. You fumbled with it until you found some releasing clasps and proceeded in the long task of getting him out of that thing. Once you could actually see everything you realized that he was in worse shape than you thought. The main thing that required your attention is what explained the entire trail of blood that now led from your car to your apartment. You ran and grabbed your medical bag, all your towels, and a couple of big bottles of water. There was a stab wound in this stomach. It didn’t look like it had hit anything vital, but it was impossible to tell without x-rays and proper equipment. But he had survived it this long. That counted for something. After what seemed like forever you got the bleeding stopped and then started rinsing and cleaning it for stitching. It was a pretty easy fix, thinking about it. You realized that that was probably the best kind of wound for torture. You moved on. 

It took just about every single thing that you had been learning about in medical school and literally all of the supplies that you owned, but you went over him head to toe and treated everything. You cleaned cuts and burns, set bones, gave more stitches, and even had to pop his dislocated shoulder back in place. There wasn’t much that you could do about the broken ribs from here. When you were finally done checking him over a third time, you filled a bucket with water and were just determined to get all of the grime off of his skin. He hadn’t woken up the whole time you were working, and that was definitely not a good sign. He had been on some sort of drug, you remembered, and that was a whole different thing that you certainly could not treat from here. You just had to pray that it wasn’t lethal. The last thing you needed was to have a dead man in your apartment. The gentle rise and fall of his chest was constant throughout, though, and you were grateful for it. 

When you got to rinsing his face, you had already changed the filthy water out three times. You tried to be as careful as possible when you ran the cloth over his broken nose and split lip, but when you got to his cheek, there was a spot of blood that just refused to come off, right over the brand in his skin. You rubbed at it, but didn’t want to hurt the already tender healing flesh. There was something familiar about it. You turned your hand over. It was supposed to be clean from all of the washing that you had been doing, but when you looked at your left fingertips they were as blood red as the spot on his face. Realization slowly dawned on you. 

They say that everyone on Earth has a soulmate, but with so many options to choose from, barely anyone actually meets them. Legends of soulmates were always amazing, but that was back when there were like 100 people on the planet. Now the odds of finding your perfect match were about one in 7 billion. But there it was, right on your skin just like they always said. The first place you touch your soulmate is forever marked with the seal of your bond. 

And you had to go and touch him on the face. 

You swept your hand through your hair and just took in the implications of what this meant. This was your perfect match. The few people that did find their soulmates always, always, ended up with them. And yours was laying here passed out in front of you after just being tortured for God knows how long by the Joker. You tried to assess exactly how you felt, but at the moment all you felt was drained. The adrenaline was officially worn off and you felt like you didn’t have enough energy to breath, let alone feel. It took everything you had left in you to awkwardly dress the man in some leftover clothes from a past relationship, get him under the covers so that you could pull the bloody comforter off to wash, and roll your soulmate onto his side (in case of overdose) before leaving and collapsing onto your couch. You’d figure out what was happening after a short nap. If he was still alive. 

\---

Jason groaned, refusing to open his eyes. He was dreaming of a warm, dry, safe space. Something so rare that he wasn’t ready to wake up and face another day of the horrors that had become his life. This was nice, at least. Even if he still hurt like hell. 

Wait. He wasn’t dreaming. He could feel it now as he slowly became more aware of himself. He was lying down on something soft and warm. Something that smelled clean. 

With a start, he yelped and sat up straight. His hands were unbound, he used them to prop himself up when all of his other muscles failed him. His chest heaved in breaths through his familiar broken ribs as his sight slowly adjusted to the light. This wasn’t his home. It wasn’t anything like his home. Where the fuck was he?

He started to turn to get off the bed and figure out where he was, when he felt a pulling sensation in his stomach. He looked down at himself and lifted his shirt to see a large gauze pad stuck to his stomach. Wait, his shirt? He was dressed in unfamiliar clothing. A t-shirt and a pair of sweats. Someone had changed him. If that wasn’t concerning enough, someone had clearly wiped all of the dirt and the blood he’d accumulated after all this time away, letting him fully see just how badly his body had been damaged since… he didn’t even know. 

This was bad. This was bad. This was bad. This was different and uncomfortable and therefore bad. With the Joker he had come to rely on certain things. Gotten to know how he thought, how he tortured. Any deviation from the norm was just a new, more painful way to break him. He looked around wildly for any sign of the Joker. Whatever he did to deserve this he was sorry, he had to let them know that. He had to go back to his room and beg forgiveness before they could bring down something worse on him. He had to get up. 

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and basically threw himself out of it. His body wasn’t ready for that at all and he found himself collapsing. His unbound hands instinctively reached out to try and catch himself. He awkwardly found a table next to the bed, but with his full weight coming down on it, the table tipped, throwing a lamp off of it with a loud crash as he and it met the floor violently. He lay still for a moment on the carpet. Commanding his stubborn limbs to move. Maybe the Joker had given him another paralytic. He heard the sound of the door opening. 

“Shit.” The voice wasn’t Joker’s and it wasn’t Harley’s. He thought that it seemed familiar, but he couldn’t place it. The owner of the voice wasted no time in revealing herself though, as he saw a woman kneel beside him the next second. Again, he was struck with the thought that he had seen her somewhere before, but maybe he was just finally going crazy. Was she even real?

“What the fuck are you doing? Get back in bed before you break something else,” she demanded, then grabbed his arm like she was going to single-handedly pick him up. His heart rate spiked at the touch. Bad. Bad bad bad bad. She was real. Not only that, she had taken him from his familiar spot and she was touching him. This had to be another test. Another game that the Joker had come up with. Failure meant pain. Success meant another test. He couldn’t fail. Especially when this was the most elaborate prank that the Joker had pulled on him to date. Think think think. What was he being tested on? What was he supposed to do? 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked down at him when she apparently couldn’t lift him (no surprise there). He made the mistake of looking up at her again. The concern in her eyes hit him like a blow to the face. He had to think for a moment to remember exactly what that expression meant. 

“Who are you? Where am I?” he asked to distract himself, resolving not to look at her face again. Ever. His voice was gravelly and cracked and didn’t sound like him at all. Not that he remembered what he had sounded like before, but he knew that this wasn’t it. 

“Hey, calm down. Remember. I’m Y/N. I got you out of Arkham. You’re in my apartment. Breathe, you’re safe here,” she said, her voice filled his ears like honey. So unlike all of the taunting and hate that had plagued him day after day in hell. She rested a hand on his forearm. He winced, expecting the pain, but there was no sharp squeeze or the bite of a knife. The touch was almost… gentle. 

“You have to help me get you back into the bed. You shouldn’t be moving. You also need water and food. And blood, actually, but I don’t have any stored in my refrigerator at the moment,” she said dryly. Then she tugged on his arm gently again and he understood. 

The game. The Joker had changed up the rooms, brought in a new face to think that he had escaped. This was a loyalty test. He couldn’t fail. With all the strength he could muster, he grabbed the arm touching him and flipped the girl onto the floor, rolling on top of her. It was remarkably easy, she couldn’t put up any kind of fight at all. That just made her more suspicious. He wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed. Her hands immediately jumped up to close around his wrists, but he could hardly feel it for all the strength she had. 

_You always loved these little games that we play, didn’t you birdy? Well I’ve got a good one here for you now._

“What kind of game are you playing!? Take me back!” he shouted, his voice cracking several times from all of the screaming that he’d been doing lately, but he hardly cared. She looked like she was trying to answer, but the question hadn’t been directed at her. He was looking wildly around the room now, certain that the Joker was somewhere, watching. And wasn’t he being good? 

He could feel her struggling weakly under him as she tried and failed to draw breath, but he couldn’t care less. One of her hands left his wrist and reached up to his face. Now he looked down at her. Her mouth was open, making odd choking sounds as her face was slowly turning blue. He couldn’t look at her eyes. Her hand finally found purchase on his face as he looked down. He flinched when her fingertips brushed up against the brand on his face. Part of the game. He just had to ignore it. Ignore it. 

But he couldn’t. There was a tingling all over his skin and heat radiating from the spot that he was touching. Not the bad, ‘brand you with a J’ kind of heat. More like the warmth of sunlight touching your skin. Or a loving kiss just brushing your cheek. He couldn’t help it, he looked down into her eyes. 

He saw fear. Something he really wasn’t used to anymore. The Joker and Harley had made him plenty afraid, but they were never scared of him. This girl’s eyes were glistening with tears and she stared right into his. Maybe the last thing she would ever see. And she was afraid. Of him. He literally held her entire life in his hands. Was this what he looked like all those times that the Joker had choked him? Or stabbed him? Or waterboarded him?

_Look me in the eyes, Robby! I don’t want to miss that sweet look of despair._

Those eyes. He couldn’t look away now that he was staring into them. They were slowly losing their light the longer he pressed on. He knew these eyes. Why couldn’t he remember? Remember remember remember re--

“Shhhh it’s gonna be okay.” 

He took his hands off of her throat like they were burned. He jumped to his feet, ignoring the groan of his many injuries. He remembered her. She had shown up out of literally nowhere. He remembered her dragging him up a set of stairs, and through a forest, and into a car. Was this part of the game? Could the Joker have set this whole thing up?

He remembered three distinct fires of a gun. That girl had done it. She had fired a gun at--

No no no no. It had to be fake, it had to. No one had found him in so long, it was never going to happen. It was supposed to be Batman who would come and when he did Jason had--

NO!!

He watched as she coughed and choked below him, desperate to get some air back into her lungs. She had rolled over onto all fours and had one hand rubbing her throat. He needed to get out of here. He needed to think. He turned toward the door and took a step, but then faltered. Still a game? What if the test was to see whether he would escape or not. Harley could be waiting on the other side of that door with the taser ready to catch him when he left. His head swam with all of the different things that would happen when he failed this test and he burst into tears. How was he supposed to succeed when he didn’t even know what he needed to succeed at? It wasn’t fair. He retreated to a corner of the room and put his back to it. Sinking down into a sitting position and holding his head in his hands.  
“No no no no no no no no no...”

He sat there for a long time, barely even registering when the woman got up and left the room in a hurry, closing the door behind him. When he could finally breathe again, he used the wall to push himself up and caught sight of himself in a mirror on the dresser. He warily stepped over to the glass. The Joker had always had a fondness for mirrors when he had been torturing Jason. He liked to show Jason the brand on his face, show him how completely he belonged to him. Maybe this was part of the test? 

His reflection was the same stranger that had come to be familiar. All sunken, dead eyes and gaunt cheeks. The usual swelling and bruising had gone down from hours of no abuse, and his nose had been set, but most everything was still some sort of shade of purple. There was blood covering his brand. If this was part of the game, then Joker wouldn’t be happy that it was covered up. Jason angrily swiped at the blood, then harder when it didn’t show any signs of coming off. He got closer to the mirror and furiously rubbed at his cheek, making his face and the brand burn like he was getting it all over again, but still nothing happened. Why was it covered? Why couldn’t he get it off. He needed to get it off, dammit, or something terrible was going to happen. 

With an angry yell, he threw his fist into the mirror in frustration. It shattered on impact, digging into his knuckles so that blood ran down his hand. He didn’t care. 

If this wasn’t the test, then something else had to be. There had to be something around here that would tell him what to do, Joker wasn’t exactly known for his subtlety. He started ripping the drawers out of the dresser and tearing apart the contents. When that proved to be fruitless he moved to the nightstand, then the window, then the attached bathroom. There had to be something. Something. A playing card or a batarang or SOMETHING that would give him a hint as to what he was doing here. Find it. Find it find it find it find it. 

\---

After you could regain your breath, you left the room, collapsing just outside the door with tears running down your face at how much that had hurt. But more than that, it had been terrifying. Trying to draw a breath and not being able to set off every panic alarm that your body had. Your vision had been blacking out when he had suddenly let go, and it was just now clearing up again as you sucked in more and more air. 

What now? You had saved his life and brought him here, only for him to almost kill you? Your soulmate. Ironically you had escaped more unscatched when confronting the Joker than him. You thought that dryly as you picked yourself up again and went to the kitchen, fishing out a glass of water, some aspirin, and an ice pack. Your neck was sure to have some ugly bruises and swelling. You couldn’t forget the feeling of his hands wrapped around your neck like that. You had struggled with everything that you’d had and it had seemed like he hadn’t even noticed. 

A little voice inside your head was screaming to get out of the apartment. Leave and go somewhere else where there wasn’t a dangerous, half-deranged former vigilante. Another voice, smaller, but insistent, was telling you that this man had just woken up from months of torture in an unfamilliar place with a stange person. It was plausible that the drugs he had been on had caused his memories of the escape to be fuzzy. It was probable that under torture that intense he had lost his mind. 

But he had had the presence of mind yesterday to let you help him out and especially to keep his identity a secret. Did a crazy man think that far ahead? Psychology wasn’t your area of expertise, but you really didn’t have it in you to blame him if he had thrown away a few marbles to survive that experience. You have no doubt that you would have. 

That still left the question of what to do now, though. You wondered if this was actually Robin. In that case, maybe getting him to Batman somehow should be the next course of action? Of course, it could just be some sick role playing thing that the Joker had been cooking up, but while he had been sleeping you had been looking online at what the theories had been for the second Robin (since there were really no official sources when it came to vigilanties) and how and when he had disappeared. It had been about nine months ago. In Arkham. With the Joker. That seemed to line up as much as you could figure. It probably wouldn’t be a terrible idea to contact the Bat, just in case. But how?

That’s about when you heard the first crash. There was a loud thud, and the sound of some glass breaking, followed by the sounds of someone completely tearing up everything they could get their hands on and frustrated yells. Your heartbeat sped up again, expecting him to burst through the door and finish what he had started while you stood there and deliberated like an idiot. Looking around you, you grabbed the first thing that you could find, which happened to be a rather large kitchen knife, and held it like it would do any good against someone like him. You started taking slow steps toward the front door, intending to get out while you could, but you never heard the frantic footsteps approach the bedroom door. It seemed like he was going to stay put for now. 

What were you even doing? This guy was supposed to be your soulmate. The most perfect person in the world for you. Someone so compatible that to date you have never heard of a single case where soulmates had found each other and failed to spend the rest of their lives together. You wondered if the same thing applied to a soulmate who had been driven insane. Does that still count? Were there some kind of rules that you could find that said whether this was still valid or not? He had just literally choked you to the point of almost passing out, that didn’t exactly scream ‘I love you’, but what if he hadn’t known? You hadn’t known until you’d really looked at both of the marks and figured it out. Would he suddenly decide that he didn’t want to kill you when he figured out what you were? He had seemed to stop choking you the moment that you had put your hand on his face, touching your soulmarks. Like a switch had been flicked on, you could see the spark of recognition that had jumped to life in his eyes when you had touched him. That counted for something, right?

You cursed, catching yourself frozen in your thoughts again, but the racket that he was making in your room hadn’t ceased yet so at least you knew where he was. Holding the knife close to you, you opened the door leading outside, but didn’t leave. You were still torn between wanting to help him, and being terrified of him. Long moments passed with no signs of stopping the ransacking of your room, but you just stayed there, frozen. The moment that you heard the doorknob turn you were going to split, but it never came. After what felt like forever, the crashes slowly stopped and silence filled the house once again. 

With every single nerve in your body on edge, you crept up to the bedroom door as quietly as you could, not really sure what your plan was here, but insanely curious as to why he had stopped and what he was doing now. Maybe he had escaped through the window?

Your question was answered when you got right up to the door and pressed your ear to it, still holding the knife at the ready. He was still there. You could hear the sound of his breathing. Slow and even. Was he asleep? You wouldn’t be terribly surprised. Someone with wounds like that should probably be in a coma, not running around a room breaking everything in sight. Plus, you were sure that he hadn’t exactly been getting a regular amount of sleep recently. 

In what was probably a bad idea, you turned the doorknob as silently as you could. The door made a bit of sound when it clicked open and you paused, but the breathing continued at a steady pace. You pushed the door open to see that the room looked like a tornado had recently gone through. Everything that was in there was strewn about on the floor or broken into. The pillows and mattress had been torn open, leaving stuffing scattered about, and the curtains had been torn down. The window and the door seemed like the only intact surfaces in the entire room. You quickly spotted Robin. He had pulled the one wooden chair that you were storing in the room into the corner where he had last been when you saw him, and was sitting in it fast asleep. You saw blood dripping down his bruised knuckles. He didn’t look remotely comfortable to you, but he was absolutely passed out with his head resting on his shoulder and his mouth open, snoring softly. 

You crept into the room, not able to take your eyes off of him. His face was looking marginally better, still puffy and sunken, but there was some color coming back into it. Currently, it was scrunched up in something like a grimace as he dreamed, his eyes darting under his eyelids. Your eyes fixed on the soulmark and all at once you knew that you had to help him. You got the strongest feeling that you had been meant to find him. Now, you needed to save him from something else. 

You turned around and went back into the kitchen, filling up a glass of water and grabbing a couple of pieces of bread from the pantry. He would need more food, but that was simple and something that he could hopefully keep down for now. You returned to the room and your heart was beating rapidly as you approached him, but he didn’t stir as you carefully placed the glass and the bread on the nightstand next to him. Then, feeling more certain that he was a heavy sleeper, you took a few minutes to clean out the bulk of the clutter on the floor. Finally, before you were set to leave, you grabbed a light throw blanket and very gently wrapped it around his shoulders. Your heart skipped a beat when he lightly stirred at that, but then he just continued to breathe and you let out the breath that you didn’t know you had been holding and tiptoed out of the room, closing the door mostly behind you, but leaving it a crack open. 

You made your way back into the living room and sat on the couch, placing the forgotten knife on the table in front of you. Just in case. There was really nothing to do now except let him get some rest and wait for him to wake up. You turned on the TV and set it to the lowest volume, flicking through the channels until you found something sufficiently stupid that you could zone out to. After a while, your eyes started drifting closed. 

\---

Jason woke up confused again, but this time quickly remembered the room from last time. There was a strange pressure on him. He looked down to see that a blanket had been placed around his shoulders. This was… strange. He looked around further to see that some of the debris off the floor where he had left it. He stiffened, knowing that someone had been there when he was sleeping, but that wasn’t exactly a strange occurrence, though it usually ended with him waking up rudely to some form of pain or another. His eyes fell onto the nightstand next to him where there was a clean glass of water and two pieces of bread sitting on a napkin. He immediately jerked up and reached out for it, overshooting in his eagerness and nearly knocking the glass to the ground. He steadied it and looked down at his hands. They were still unbound. He really couldn’t remember when the last time he had been unbound for this long. Normally the Joker knew that he was a better fighter, and so kept him disadvantaged. 

_Gotta keep my little bird grounded. Wouldn’t want you to fly away from your loving Uncle Jay!_

He didn’t puzzle over this for too long before grabbing the glass and chugging the contents down. It was more than likely that it was drugged, but he had stopped caring about that a long time ago if it meant that he got water. He finished it depressingly fast, even though it felt like he was just going to throw it right back up since it was the most water that he had been allowed in forever. He then grabbed the bread and scarfed that down too, ignoring the nausea that was already in his stomach. He felt fuller than he could remember and wondered why the Joker was allowing him this indulgence, but then his mind conjured up an image of a face. The girl’s face. He had seen her last time he had woken up. Suspiciously, like he expected to see her jump out of a dark corner, he glanced around the room.

Was it possible that the vague memories he had of her leading him out of the cell were true? His head had been spinning and his entire body had felt like it was floating. He had probably been drugged. Impossible to tell, then. The Joker particularly liked drugging him when he was away, giving him hallucinogens so that all sorts of monsters had come to attack him while he was alone. Mostly Batman. Always Batman. 

With a clearer head than last time, he stood up and inspected the room again. It did indeed look like the room of a young woman. There was nothing there to suggest that the Joker had any influence on this room, he knew since he had checked. Thoroughly. He caught sight of his reflection again in the cracked, bloody mirror and really looked at it this time. His hand came up and he brushed the brand on his face with his fingertips. That had been where she had touched him. He distinctly remembered the feeling that he had when her hand had just barely grazed his face, even through all the fog and pain. The crimson mark was still covering the brand almost completely. An idea of what it was was forming in his mind, but he dismissed the idea promptly. Maybe this was what the Joker had wanted to test him on. Though he wasn’t sure how you could fake that. He wouldn’t put anything past that deranged clown. 

He realized that he had been standing there for a while, motionless in front of the dresser. A quick look to his right showed that the door to the room remained cracked open. There were very faint sounds coming from the next room over. Taking a shaky breath, he walked over to it and grabbed the doorknob, his heartbeat jumping. Nothing happened, so he pulled the door open and was met with a little apartment. He could see straight into the kitchen, to his right was a small living room. That was where the sound was coming from. A TV turned on, low volume. 

With all of his senses on high alert, he took a few steps out of the room, fully expecting something to crash into him or a high pitch laugh to assault his ears. When neither of those things happened, he continued. Once he had a clearer view of the living room he saw the form of someone lying on the couch. It was the girl. She was fast asleep, curled up on the couch. She didn’t stir when he walked in. He studied her features. She was for sure the same girl that he had apparently been spending a lot of time with. She looked so peaceful, untroubled in her sleep. It occurred to him that she was pretty, with her hair sprawled around her face and her lips in a small pout. She must’ve been exhausted or crazy to be here sleeping after his last encounter with him. It would be so easy for him to take her out. It was suspicious. 

_That’s right. Wrap your fingers around her pretty neck again, hero._

He couldn’t let his guard down. He needed to figure out what was happening and that started with her. It was time that he found out exactly who she was. 

\---

“Who are you?” 

The voice startled you out of your nap that you had never meant to take. Your eyes jumped open and immediately focused on the closest object: the knife being pointed at your face. You yelped in surprise and instinctively pushed your entire body away from it, sitting up on the couch, propped up by your hands. The knife didn’t get any closer, but raised, staying trained on your face. You gulped and your hand lept to your throat when that hurt, remembering the bruises. Your eyes flicked to Robin, holding the knife with a hard look on his face. You cursed yourself for falling asleep, and for even getting the knife in the first place; you had practically handed it to him. 

“I told you already. I’m Y/N.” You were getting really tired of this shit. Did he have memory problems or something?

“Who are you working for?” his cracked voice was full of venom, a crazy look was in his eyes. 

“Working for? No one. I’m just a med student from Gotham General. I found you in a cell in Arkham and pulled you out. That’s it. I swear, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you,” you pleaded. You focused on his eyes and saw a flicker of doubt in them. He slowly lowered the knife. Feeling suddenly bold, you added, “I’m obviously not going to hurt you. You don’t need the knife, Robin.”

At the name, he raised the knife again, sputtering, “Don’t-- I’m not-- call me that!” The sudden change in demeanor had you flinching away from him again. 

“Okay, sure. What should I call you, then?” you managed to whisper in a shaky voice. 

He looked confused for a moment, like he didn’t know what to say. “Ja-- Jason,” he said, faltering like the word felt wrong on his lips. 

“Okay. Jason, please put the knife down. If you’re going to be violent then you need to leave,” you said, stronger this time. You had absolutely no ground to stand on with that demand, but you prayed that he would listen. 

He regarded you for a moment, it was pretty obvious that you were scared, your breaths coming out in short puffs as you kept your eyes on him. He slowly sat down on the side of the couch that you had just abandoned and the knife clattered back on the coffee table, still in reach in case he needed it. 

“How did you find me?”

“I was delivering some files. I got lost and I saw an open cell with a trap door,” you explained softly, still on edge, though relaxing a little bit that he wasn’t directly threatening you anymore. “I went down and found you. The Joker was there too. I-- I shot him, then we left and came here.” You knew that you didn’t even sound like you believed it, but it was the first time you’d put that into words, the weight of the whole thing hitting you. You had shot a man. You reasoned that he hardly counted as a man, but still. 

Jason closed his eyes and nodded, like you were confirming something that he had already known. He then chewed at his lip, like he was thinking hard. When he opened them again and looked at you, you were surprised at the vulnerable look that was in them. 

“Can-- Can I see it?” he asked softly. You cocked your head in confusion. What was he asking for? Then he put one hand up to his face, brushing his soulmark and you understood. You silently shifted your weight off of your hand and very hesitantly reached out your left hand out to him. He took it like it was a bomb set to explode any moment. His fingers were so gentle that you could barely feel it as they brushed over your stained ones. It was such a sharp contrast to earlier that you gasped. That was also probably due to the light buzz that ran up your arm at his touch. Ever so slowly and gently, he raised your hand and moved closer until your fingertips were resting on his face. Insead of a light buzz, an actual tingle like electricity shot through you at the contact. He seemed to feel it too, as he closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. His body seemed to relax all the tension. 

“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” he finally whispered after a moment. His eyes fluttered open and settled on your throat, where the bruising was already showing in full force. He looked like he was about to cry.

“Hey, it’s okay. You didn’t know,” you attempted to sooth him. His eyes were swimming with guilt and sadness and something so inherently broken that you just wanted to wrap him in your arms and hold him together. It was so unlike the last time where he had been angry and violent and unhinged. 

“I thought that this was a test-- that you were--” he faltered in his attempt to explain himself to you.

“Shhh, you don’t need to explain. I can’t even imagine what happened to you, I--” you stopped short as well as a million different feelings bubbled up in your chest. You felt tears slip out of your eye as it all became too much. You slowly put your other hand up to his face, so that you were holding him in both hands, gentle, like he could break. “I’m sorry,” you whispered, not sure that he could even hear it. 

His eyes jumped to you in surprise. “What for?” 

“I’m sorry that I didn’t come get you sooner.” You leaned forward and wrapped your arms around his shoulders, bringing him in and resting your chin on his shoulder. He was stiff for a moment at the sudden closeness, but then he relaxed and you felt his hands slowly rest on your back. 

The two of you stayed like that for what seemed like forever, both trying to deal with all of the emotions that were flooding through you. Finally, you pulled back and he easily let you slip from his arms. He was staring at you warily, like he wasn’t sure what you were going to do next. To be fair, you didn’t know what you were going to do next. You swiped your hand through your messy hair, trying to think. 

“Is-- Is there somewhere that I can take you?” you asked softly. “Family, maybe?”

His eyes went wide with fear and his breath hitched, coming out in panicked gasps. You fully recognized the signs of an impending panic attack.

“Okay, it’s okay. You don’t have to go anywhere. You can stay right here with me, I swear. Just breathe,” you said, trying to calm him down. Your hand twitched to comfort him, but then you thought better of it when you remembered the last time that you had touched him when he was in panic mode. You hoped that your voice would be enough to pacify him. 

Remarkably, he found his breath again and seemed to calm down a touch. His big eyes were holding your gaze like it was the only thing binding him to reality. Maybe it was. After a moment he seemed to have regained all composure, and his eyes began to droop again. 

“You should go back to the bed. Get some more rest. You need to heal,” you said and slowly took his hand and stood up, urging him to follow you. He did, offering no resistance as you led him into your bedroom and directed him toward the bed. You frowned as you remembered that both the bed and the pillows had been torn into. How had he even done that? Oh well, it still looked like it could be sleepable if he stuck to one side. 

He swallowed and said, “I’m not used to…” he trailed off and it took you a moment to realize what he was saying when he walked over to the chair and sat down. 

Your heart stuttered as you remembered the sight of the bloody chair discarded in the middle of the room in Arkham. That must’ve been where he was kept for so long. He was looking at you now, trying to gauge your expression. His face looked vulnerable, like the thought of you rejecting him would send him scattering into a million pieces. 

“It’s okay. Whatever you’re comfortable with. Just get some sleep,” you said, giving him a small, sad smile. “I’ll be right outside if you need anything.” You walked back and flicked off the lights, closing the door most of the way behind you. 

That had gone so much better than you thought it would, you thought to yourself as you walked into the kitchen. Once he had stopped freaking out at you he had been fine. You were glad that you hadn’t fled your apartment in terror earlier. It had been close. You made your way to the kitchen, pulling open the fridge and taking stock of what you had available, also glad that you had recently gone grocery shopping since the thought of leaving Jason alone made your stomach clench in fear. He wasn’t in any shape to be going anywhere, but you doubted that that would stop him if he was determined. You weren’t sure how long he would be asleep for, so you settled on making a soup with the ingredients that you had. It could simmer for as long as he needed. The familiarity of cooking put you at ease and you lost track of time. 

Once the soup was all set, you made yourself a bowl, hoping that he wouldn’t mind if you ate without him. You also decided to be somewhat productive with your time. You pulled out your laptop and some books and then called your work. The staff that you worked with were obviously annoyed that you had never come back from the file delivery earlier, but were okay with you taking off a week when you cited a family emergency. You didn’t want to go into detail explaining that you had picked up your severely injured soulmate from Arkham, so you left it at that. 

Your coursework, however, couldn’t be put off if you wanted to keep your scholarship, but it could all be done from here if you needed. You got to work emailing professors and just generally making sure that you weren’t going to fall behind. 

At some point you looked up to stretch and you saw a figure standing in the doorway. You yelped and stood up quickly, causing the chair to tip behind you. Then you jumped again at the loud crash that it made. After a second, you recognized your soulmate, which was strange because you hadn’t heard him come into the room. You wondered how long he had been standing there for a moment, but then recovered. 

“Jason. Sorry, you startled me. There’s soup if you want some food,” you said, turning around to pick up the chair that had fallen in an effort to hide your embarrassment for that overreaction. You weren’t used to living with anyone. Let alone someone who could move around so quietly.

“Sure,” he said, his voice was still wrecked, and you wondered whether it would ever fully heal after all that he had been through. You straightened up and got him a bowl out of the cabinet, pouring some soup in and handing it to him with a spoon. He sat down on the chair opposite you, wincing as the movement aggravated his many injuries, and an awkward silence fell over the two of you. He drew it out for as long as possible, but there was only so much soup in the bowl and it didn’t look like he was going to ask for more. 

“What are you doing?” he asked eventually. 

“Homework. I have to get this paper written by Friday if I want to pass this class,” you said, mostly just grateful that you had something to talk about. 

“What are you writing about?” he asked. 

“Just something on the use of activated charcoal in extreme poisonings,” you say, aware that it was probably a boring topic that he didn’t care about. However, he kept his eyes on yours the entire time with an intensity that almost made you shrink under his gaze. 

He proceeded to ask you questions for a while, digging into the topic of your paper and then about your other classes until he had you complaining for a while about some of the other interns in the hospital and talking about how your family had taken a trip to Metropolis a few summers ago. It didn’t take you long to figure him out, though. After the first couple of questions you realized that he seemed to be more intent on just listening to you talk than on anything that you were actually saying, though it surprisingly did look like he was paying at least a little attention. You let him prompt you, your answers getting more and more long-winded. You suspected that he hadn’t had anyone to talk to in a long time. Or that if you kept talking then you wouldn’t be asking him questions. Either way you let the sound of your voice fill the kitchen as you ignored your paper and chattered. You were always pretty good at holding conversation, and he was also just extremely easy to talk to. It was probably a soulmate thing. 

Eventually you seemed to run out of things to talk about and he had run out of things to ask. You had basically just told him your life story and so now there was silence again. He seemed to come apart at the silence, his eyes now flicking in different directions like he thought that something would come out of the corner and attack him. You sighed and figured that you were going to have to have this conversation eventually and that you should probably just get it over with. 

“Jason, can we talk about what-- what happened?” you asked hesitantly. 

He stiffened and his eyes snapped back to you with the same intensity, though now he looked wary. “Just go back to writing your paper,” he dodged, his voice carrying a dangerous edge.

“I have all week for that,” you dismissed. “Besides, this is more important. If you really are Robin then Ba--”

“I told you not to call me that,” he said, his voice suddenly getting louder, just on the cusp of shouting. 

“Okay, sorry,” you said immediately, putting your hands up. “It’s just that I’m sure that Batman is looking--”

With an angry yell, Jason stood up and slammed his hands down on the table, making you jump and your heartbeat rapidly increase. “Don’t ever mention him! He doesn’t care! He didn’t-- wouldn’t--” Jason broke off, breathing hard and from the ringing silence in the room he seemed to just realize now that he had been yelling. You had shrunk into yourself a little bit, but you were staring intently into his eyes. You didn’t know him very well, but you thought that you could recognize pain in his eyes from your medical training. Also fear. And maybe.... guilt? You weren’t sure on that last one, but he didn’t seem like he was angry. More like he was panicking. Like the last time that you had asked about his family. 

After a moment of intense staring, he abruptly turned and walked out of the room and back into the bedroom, slamming the door behind him. You rubbed your temples, taking a few shaky breaths. Of course he was going to react terribly to that. Why couldn’t you just leave it alone? You shouldn’t have pushed. You berated yourself and then tried and failed to continue focusing on your paper after that distraction. You resigned yourself to going back to the couch and turning on the TV again. You’d give him a little bit to cool off and then go apologize. 

You could hear him angrily pacing in the room next to you (your walls weren’t exactly soundproofed) and you inwardly flinched. Someone with injuries like that shouldn’t be moving around at all, let alone to the extent that he’d been going. You got the feeling that there was very little that you could do to deter him, and he didn’t seem to mind the pain that you were sure was coursing through his body at the moment. Eventually you heard the shower start running and you again had to push down the doctor in you that wanted to go and make sure that he was doing everything properly with the stitching that you had given him not too long ago. You’d save the lecture for when he wasn’t pissed off at you. If that was ever. You curled up further into the couch, not really paying attention to the flashing screen in front of you. 

\---

Jason let the warm spray of water run over his face, wondering if this is what heaven feels like. It had been so long since he had had a shower, and even though he knew from past experience that getting the stitches wet so soon after getting them wasn’t the best, he couldn’t help himself when he had wandered into the bathroom and saw the small shower. It felt so strange for him to want something and then be able to just take it.

He patted himself dry with a towel that he found under the sink and as the steam cleared out from the mirror, he was forced to think of Y/N as he spotted the bright red of the soulmark on his face. Guilt started bubbling somewhere in the back of his mind as he remembered what had just happened. She had been nothing but kind to him. She was the one that got him out of Arkham, that was giving him a place to stay and food, and all he’d done in return is yell at her and hurt her. His soulmate. He was probably the world’s worst soulmate ever. Well, of course he was. He was broken and she deserved so much better than him. Self-loathing filled him as he gazed into the mirror. Though the blood red of the soulmark covered up most of the brand, it was still visible on his face. Joker’s mark of ownership would never leave him, marking him as worthless to everyone else. 

_Gotta make sure that people know exactly who you belong to, birdbrat!_

Jason leaned down on the counter and shut his eyes as tightly as he could, forcing his body to remain calm and breathe when all he wanted to do was spiral into another panic attack. That fucking voice was going to be with him until he died, he was sure of it. Though while he had sat and listened to Y/N talk about her life and her family, everything had been quiet. Blissfully, unequivocally quiet, save for her soft voice as she answered for much longer than necessary. There was no way that she knew that she was silencing the Joker in his head, right? Then there had been silence and all of the doubts and fears had returned. She had asked about his family and it had been too much. Between her saying things that he desperately needed to forget and the Joker’s maniacal laugh in his head, he had been seeing red. Leaving the room had been the best thing that he could think of to clear his head, but now as the silence stretched he longed for the company that he had abandoned. 

Getting dressed back in the same clothes, he made his way back into the bedroom, using the towel to get the last of the water out of his hair. He was hit with another wave of guilt as he saw the torn apart bedroom in the dim lighting. Another thing that he had done wrong. He tried to straighten up a little more, but most of what he had done had destroyed the room beyond repair. He sighed and slumped down into his chair. He was so easily exhausted now, from months of not using his muscles for anything except clenching in pain. He should really start trying to get back into shape. He thought of the many exercise routines that Bruce had drilled into him as he fell into unconsciousness. 

He was woken up by a tentative knock on the closed door. He lifted his head to see that he was still alone, but this time there was finally no confusion about where he was. The room was becoming familiar. 

“Jason?” a hesitant voice called softly from behind the door. “I made breakfast. I know that you had dinner at like 2 am last night, but I just wanted to let you know that there’s food.... If you want it.” She went quiet, but he could tell that she was still standing right outside the door. He had been up at 2 am? He tried to think back to when time had even mattered to him. Joker was always vague about it. When he didn’t answer, her footsteps disappeared back into the kitchen. He got up and started stretching his sore muscles, still fully used to the pain that any sort of movement brought. It focused him. 

The smell of breakfast food was eventually what got him to turn the doorknob and step out of the room. He had hesitated at the door, not sure how he was going to face her again after last night. She was sitting at the table with a plate of pancakes and bacon in front of her. The dark circles under her eyes let him know that she hadn’t slept much, if at all, and she was focusing on her food with a small frown on her face. He looked around and saw that there was more food on the stove, as well as an empty plate so he walked over and helped himself. He had to stop himself from literally drooling at the smell of bacon. Having easy access to food was something that he was never going to take for granted again, if he ever did in the first place. He hoped she wouldn’t mind if he took literally everything left. 

He sat down at the same spot that he had been last night and started inhaling his food after drenching everything in maple syrup. He tried to stifle his moan at how good the food was, but was unsuccessful. Y/N looked up at him. 

“You’ll definitely want to pace yourself with that. Your stomach probably isn’t used to a lot of sugary foods. And drink some water.” She was using what he recognized now as her doctor voice. He slowly lowered the fork from his lips, looking right back at her. She shifted under his gaze. 

“And about last night, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed,” she added gently, like even just mentioning it might set him off again. He raised his eyebrows in surprise. 

“ _You’re_ apologizing for that? Fuck, you should be kicking my sorry ass to the curb,” he said, surprised at how much he sounded like his old self. She looked surprised too, looking back up at him sharply, her lips just barely twitching like she was holding back a smile. 

“It’s okay to be not okay. And you’re welcome here for as long as you need. Or until rent increases enough that they kick me out. Whichever comes first,” she says nonchalantly, stabbing at another piece of food on her plate. He stared at her, trying to determine the sincerity of her words through the joke. When he saw that she looked completely serious about her offer, he felt tears prick at his eyes. 

“Thank you,” his voice cracks, but what else is new so he continues. “I never said thank you for letting me stay and for cooking and talking to me and for getting me the fuck out of there.”

She stiffened and then reached over the table, covering his hand with hers. She was warm. He watched her as she gave him an even warmer smile. “You’re welcome.”

They finished their breakfast in a not totally uncomfortable silence as Jason struggled not to sob at being treated with any sort of kindness. She got up to do the dishes and when Jason followed, she handed him a towel and he dried them. When they were done, she sat back down at the table with a pad of paper and a pen and started scribbling things down on it. Jason walked up behind her and read over her shoulder as she was listing out what was clearly a shopping list. 

“If you’re gonna stay here then you’ll need… things. I can make a quick trip to the store, it’s just right down the street. Anything in particular that you want?” she asked, still writing. 

“I’ll just come with you,” he said.

“No way, you shouldn’t even be out of bed, let alone walking that much.” She gave him a stern look. 

“I’m fine,” he protested. That look had reminded him strongly of Alfred. He hoped that she wasn’t going to be that stubborn. 

“No. You’re staying here. Doctor’s orders,” she said decisively.

“Aren’t you just a student?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. 

“Closest thing we’ve got to a doctor. Unless you want to finally go to a hospital. I won’t say no to that,” she looked at him almost hopefully. 

“No thanks,” he shot her down, reaching out and snatching the list. He read through it, trying to figure out what he needed to function as a normal person again. It looked like she got everything he could think of, plus some. “So, what? You planning on locking me in here?” He was mainly joking, but the weight of his words seemed to shock her. 

“No! I mean, I can’t even do that. I’m just worried. If you do too much then you might puncture a lung on one of those broken ribs and-- just please tell me that you’ll stay here,” she said, catching herself from talking too much. She was looking at him with big eyes that he knew he couldn’t say no to. “I’ll be right back, I promise.”

He didn’t love the idea of being alone again, but he knew that she was just being reasonable. He would need a change of clothes eventually. “Fine,” he relented, sitting back down at the table. She seemed to relax at that.

“I’m going to take a shower and then head out. You’re welcome to anything in the apartment, though there’s really not much,” she said, still sounding like he would up and leave if she didn’t hurry. He wondered if she craved his company the way that he did hers. Though she probably didn’t have a clown voice ring through her head when she was alone. 

When she went into the shower he finally got a moment to sweep the apartment. He found that A) there really was nothing out of the ordinary for a med student and B) that there were no cameras or listening devices that would suggest an outside party being in on this. There was also no security system beyond the one deadbolt on the lock. That was probably going to have to change soon. He settled down on the couch finally and flicked on the TV, though nothing caught his interest. He was still there when Y/N came out of the bathroom, pulling a brush through her wet hair and looking a little bit relieved when she spotted him. 

“Alright, I’m off. It’ll be an hour, two hours tops,” she announced, pulling on a raincoat and grabbing her purse and keys. 

“See ya,” he said nonchalantly, keeping his eyes on the TV. She paused and frowned at him, and he wondered for a moment whether she could see straight through his act, but then she continued out the door, leaving him alone. 

It was just two hours. He could do this. 

_A lot can happen in an hour, little Jaybird._

\---

You sighed inwardly at the checkout counter when you saw the final price for your purchase. This was definitely eating into your carefully planned budget, but there wasn’t really much that you could do. You’d just have to see if you could work overtime at the hospital to make up for this. It wasn’t that big of a deal, you were just eager to get back. You didn’t know him very well, but he seemed like the flighty type. As well as he should, after being locked up for so long, but you’d hoped that your soulmate would at least stick around to get to know you a little. 

It felt weird thinking about having a soulmate. A literal perfect match for you in every way. You two hadn’t talked about it at all, but what now? Were you supposed to start dating immediately? It felt weird to think that way about someone you literally just met. He was easy to talk to, and when he did talk (and he wasn’t angry) he seemed sweet, if not a little broody. You felt slightly embarrassed that you had spilled so much of yourself to him and he had hardly said a word about himself, but you reminded yourself that he would talk more when he was ready. You could be patient, you were just afraid of scaring him off before he could get there.

You were still pondering these things as you walked back into your apartment, your arms loaded with all of the different bags. You immediately saw Jason still sitting on the couch where you had left him, a blank look in his eyes. He looked over at you as you walked in and immediately jumped to his feet, coming over to grab some of the bags off your arms. 

“That was quick,” he said emotionlessly. 

“Mmmhm,” you responded, noticing that his carefully blank face told a different story. “Let’s sort through all this in the kitchen.” You led the way to the kitchen and plopped the bags down on the counter. You’d gotten clothes, toiletries, and another round of groceries for the week now that you had two people to feed and judging by the way he ate this morning those weren’t going to last long. He sorted through all of the items, not commenting on the choices. 

“Do anything fun while I was gone?” you asked, mostly jokingly since it didn’t appear that he had even moved. 

“There’s a great documentary on lions on. Did you know that lion cubs have spots?” he said sarcastically. 

“Sounds riveting,” you said, not holding back a smile. He stared at you for a moment, but then hesitantly returned the smile, only making yours grow. 

“Alright, we can clear out the top drawer of the dresser to throw your stuff in,” you said, grabbing one of the bags and heading into the bedroom with him tentatively following you. You got into the room and flicked on the light. The devastation of the room was on full display, but you just ignored that and knelt by the dresser, opening the drawer and throwing a bunch of stuff out and adding to the mess. He came to stand by you and picked up one of the shirts you had unceremoniously dumped on the ground. He held it up and inspected it. It was obviously not yours, too big to fit. He glanced down at you but didn’t ask. You decided that you’d rather not let the awkward silence reign, and gave him an explanation. 

“All this crap used to be my Ex’s stuff. He was a real douchemuffin.”

“A what?” The corners of Jason’s mouth twitched up.

“Douche muffin. It’s not even worth explaining, we broke up a while ago.”

“So why do you still have his stuff?” he asked, curiously. 

You shrugged. “I’ve been busy. I don’t normally hang out here too much. I’m usually working or in class.”

“Speaking of which, don’t you work during the day?”

“I took the week off.”

“Aww for me? You shouldn’t have,” he said. You’re starting to notice an accent lighten his tone. Definitely an inner-city Gotham native then. You filed that information away for later. You weren’t about to ask him any more questions about his past.

“Hey, um, sorry about the room,” he said, after the silence had gotten a little too long. You looked around and saw him looking sheepish behind you, staring down at the ground. 

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” you dismissed, and then started gathering things on the floor into a pile. “There are garbage bags in the kitchen under the sink, could you go grab one for me?” 

He did what you asked and you spent a while cleaning up the room together. You just threw away anything that was broken and wiped down the blood off the broken mirror from the other night. Then, despite your protests about his injuries, Jason helped you flip the mattress and put up the new curtains that you had bought while you were out. While you were working, you got back to chattering again, since you didn’t like the silence and he seemed to relax when he could hear your voice. You finally stumbled upon a topic that he knew about and you cursed yourself for not knowing more about baseball. All you could give him was the little tidbits that you have picked up from your father, but he seemed to perk up when you mentioned it and even gave some of his own comments about the sport. Your heart warmed at his interest and you became determined to figure out more of what he liked.

When you were done cleaning the room, it didn’t look half bad. The mirror was still broken and there were new chips off the furniture and a few holes in the wall, but other than that it looked fine. Definitely still livable. You heated up the last of the soup for lunch and were actually optimistic that things had been going so well since the morning. He seemed content to be in your company, as long as you weren’t asking personal questions, but there was something that you had been meaning to do all morning that probably shouldn’t wait any longer. 

“Jason, you should let me take a look at your injuries. I need to make sure that they’re all healing properly,” you said after a while. 

“I’m fine you don’t need to do that,” he tried to deflect dryly. 

You sighed. “Just let me play doctor. I don’t want anything to get infected on my watch, and I’m sure that you know what you’re doing,” you said, holding up a hand when he went to protest again, “but I’d feel better if you’d just let me be certain that you’re okay.”

Jason looked like he was debating about it, his eyes got that sharp gleam in them that you had come to expect whenever he was thinking about what had happened to him. Eventually he just nodded, though there was a grim look on his face. You wasted no time in grabbing the medical kit back out from where you had it stashed and brought it to the bedroom with him following just behind you. You pulled out some necessary equipment and motioned for him to sit on the bed and take off his shirt. When he hesitantly did, you couldn’t help but to suck in a quick breath that you were sure he heard. Even though most of the bruising looked better, you were still shocked at how bad it all looked. His skin was littered with criss-crossing scars in all stages of healing. 

He looked away in shame and started to cover himself up, but you snapped out of it quick and pulled his hands away, feeling the faint buzzing that you always did when your left hand connected with his skin. 

“Bruising looks better, can you lean back a little for me so that I can get a good look at the stitches here?” you asked professionally. The last thing you needed was for him to be self-conscious, so you used your voice again to try and calm him down, commenting on his healing and giving commands. You listened to his heartbeat and breathing and checked and rebandaged all of the stitches. His ribs were still broken, obviously, and you wondered how he was even getting out of bed in that state. You eventually fished out some Advil that you had in the kit and made him take a couple because he was obviously stubbornly ignoring the pain that he was in. All in all, he looked about as good as you could hope for someone who had just been tortured for nine months. It honestly made you a little suspicious. You’d only spent all of 20 seconds with that maniac, but you knew that Jason could be a lot worse off than he was, which meant the Joker must’ve been keeping him at least healthy enough for some sort of plan. You really hoped that you had spoiled it when you shot him. 

After you were done, Jason pulled on some clean clothes and you two made your way back to the living room where you got some reading done out of your textbooks and he asked for your laptop, which you gave to him freely. You were insanely curious about what he was up to, but you figured that he needed some privacy, though he didn’t leave the room, just sat on the opposite end of the couch from you, occasionally typing like he was searching the internet for some things. 

A couple hours passed in silence and eventually you broke him out of his concentration by asking, “What do you want to make for dinner?”

He looked up like he had forgotten that you were there and then said, “What do you have?”

You closed your book and slid off of the couch. “I don’t know, let’s go look.”

You ended up on deciding on making chicken fajitas and you were about two seconds into chopping up the vegetables when his voice came from right behind you saying, “You’re doing it wrong.”

You squeaked and jumped, turning around with the knife still in your hand and getting lucky that you didn’t accidentally stab him. He had to stop walking around so silently like that. It was creepy. “Jason! Maybe don’t startle the girl with the sharp knife? Wait, I’m doing what now?” 

He rolled his eyes and said, “You couldn’t stab me if you tried. But you’re cutting that wrong, we need even strips if you want them all to cook at the same time.”

“Well if you’re such an expert at this, then why don’t you do it?” you asked, prompting him to shrug and take the knife from you, walking over and expertly cutting the pepper into thin strips. You looked over his shoulder, impressed. 

“The trick is to get the timing down,” he said, smirking a little as you wiped the look off your face. 

“Right, the _timing_ , of course,” you said in mock awe. He chuckled a little bit and then stopped as though he were surprised at that. You just gave him your brightest smile and asked, “So, any more amazing tips on fancy knifework?”

You were happy to let him take the lead on the cooking. He seemed to enjoy it and you were never really good at it. Passable, but he worked the kitchen like it was his second home, taking out all of your spices and wrinkling his nose at most of them. You made a mental note to expand your meager collection if these fajitas turned out to be any good. The whole time you were following around, asking questions pretty much exactly like he had been doing to you ever since you met. He caught on quick, but answered all of them even though he didn’t go into hyper-detail like you had last night. You stayed clear away from any of the sensitive topics and everything went fine. You’d even go so far as to say that it looked like he was having fun. 

The fajitas were the best you’d ever had, and when you said so he just scoffed. “Alfred’s would put these to shame.” Then he paused in shock, as though he didn’t believe that he had just said that. 

“Is that who taught you to cook?” you asked, innocently taking a chance.

He paused and took a bite, looking a little lost in thought. Eventually he nodded and said, “He’s the best.”

“My compliments to the chef, then,” you said, smiling and not daring to press any further. That was already hands down the most detail that he had given about his past. You hoped that that was a good sign that he was opening up to you. 

If you were hoping for more opening up, then you were sorely disappointed as the next couple of days passed. You’d fallen into a sort of routine with him living there. He insisted on sleeping in the living room since he wasn’t using the bed anway, so you would get up and shower, then have coffee and study while he got ready. The two of you would make breakfast together and then do any chores around the apartment that you needed. Lunch was usually leftovers from whatever you’d had previously, then you’d cook dinner together, though it was usually just Jason working in the kitchen while you did any basic task that he deemed your level. In between you’d either study or watch TV with him. He’d taken a liking to one of the police dramas that you could stream, though it seemed like he enjoyed pointing out the inaccuracies more than anything. All in all, it was a pretty cozy arrangement. You two were getting along well and he turned out to be a pretty good roommate. You knew that you should be trying to get him to open up to you more about his family and what happened, but every time you got close to the topic he would either start to panic and shut you down again, or ignore you completely. You weren’t sure which was worse, but the air between you two was starting to thicken with the unsaid words. You couldn’t keep playing the ‘everything is fine’ game forever. You knew that something was going to have to snap sooner or later. 

The nightmares started on the fourth night that he stayed with you. 

You were woken up by the sounds of strangled yelling and you immediately jumped out of bed and ran into the living room with literally no plan. You were momentarily relieved that there was no one else in the room except for Jason, but then you realized that he was deep in the throes of a nightmare. His face was set in a scowl and his entire body was twitching. You jumped to his side, but stopped before violently shaking him awake like you wanted to. 

“Jason,” you said, trying to keep your voice soothing. “Jason, wake up. It’s just a dream.”

He whimpered in his sleep, but his eyes stayed closed. His fists were clenching so hard that you were sure that he was hurting himself. Since that didn’t work, you very tentatively put a hand on his arm, still talking. “Jason, it’s okay. You’re safe. You’re here with me. Wake up please.”

His eyes snapped open and he promptly grabbed the hand that you had on him. You had a horrible flashback to the first night when he had slammed you to the ground and wrapped his hands around your neck, but this time he just pulled you forward a little bit, staring deeply into your eyes. His eyes were filled with fear, and when you moved to comfort him further, he flinched back hard, causing you to back off. 

“Hey, it’s just me. You were yelling in your sleep,” you murmured, looking away from him. 

“Y/N,” he whispered, sounding like he was getting more lucid. “‘M sorry for waking you up.”

“That’s okay. Can you let me go now?”

He looked down at his hand, which still had a deathgrip around your forearm. He quickly released it and you rubbed blood back into your fingers. He looked up at you like he was going to apologize for it, but you beat him. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” You asked softly. 

“About what?” he answered automatically. 

“The dream.” 

He set his jaw into a hard look. “No.”

“... okay. Do you need anything? I can--”

“I’m fine. Go back to bed,” he said, sounding tired. You stared down at him warily, wishing that he would just open up to you and get it over with, but there was really nothing you could do. 

“Fine. Just let me know if you change your mind. Goodnight Jason.” You walked back to your room and crawled into bed. Maybe he’d be more cooperative in the morning. 

The morning came and Jason seemed determined to pretend like nothing had happened, though the dark circles under his eyes told you that he probably hadn’t gone back to sleep at all after waking up. The day was a lot more quiet than usual, both of you sticking to your thoughts more. You kept shooting him worried glances, which he would return with narrowed eyes. A warning that he still didn’t want to talk about it. 

The night after that it happened again. You woke him up and got nothing but another command to go back to bed and he looked even worse in the morning after two days with no sleep. The third day was so much worse. 

“No. Stop. Please,” you heard a whine. “Please please please. Bruce. No!!”

It felt like your stomach was filled with molten lead as you jumped out of bed again at his words. He was sitting in the usual chair in the living room, arms wrapped protectively around himself and his face twisted into fear. He looked so small and young, it was breaking your heart to see him like this. 

Again, you woke him up with a gentle touch and gentler words. This time you used your left hand, though. Maybe the touch of the soulmark would help, you thought as you felt the telltale tingle go up your arm and you tried to convey warmth and safety. His eyes fluttered open more gently this time and he took a few shaky breaths to recover.

“Jason, you should really--”

“I already told you no,” he snapped, his earlier fear and confusion settling into frustration. 

“But--”

“Go back to bed.”

You narrowed your eyes at his tone. “No,” you said and you both stayed still for a moment, glaring at each other. Then you abruptly straightened up and walked into the kitchen, grabbing the tub of ice cream out of the freezer and a spoon and returning to the living room. Jason's eyes followed you as you settled yourself onto the couch and turned on the TV. You searched around Netflix for a show that you liked and put it on, pointedly ignoring Jason. 

“What are you doing?” he asked after a minute. 

“Watching TV,” you said, not taking your eyes off the screen. You took a big bite of ice cream. 

“It’s the middle of the night.”

“Oh, sorry. Were you going to go back to sleep?” you asked, lacing your voice with friendly concern and finally turning your eyes back toward him. 

“You should.” You can see the frustration in his eyes grow as you were intentionally being difficult. 

“I’ll leave if you go to sleep,” you said, too stubborn to let him win. You turned your eyes back to the screen. 

After a moment, you heard him get up and walk across the room, then felt the couch dip as he settled in his spot next to you. You offered him the ice cream and he took a bite, sitting and staring at the screen silently for a while with you. You were fighting back another yawn (because he would only use that as more ammunition) when you realized how close the two of you had gotten as you passed the tub of ice cream back and forth. You were acutely aware that you could feel the heat radiating off of him as he stared at the screen, seeming determined to win this battle of stubbornness. 

You used the opportunity to focus more on him. He had a forced look of relaxation on, but you could tell that he was still bothered by the nightmare that he refused to talk about. You thought you might already have an idea of what it was about, but that wasn’t the point. It hurt you to see him in so much fear and pain. You just wanted to wrap your arms around him and let him know that you were there for him, that he was safe with you. Your relationship hadn’t strayed into the physical realm at all. Not even the comforting touches and hugs that you were used to with friends. You had been too concerned with letting him have his space. But maybe now…

In a stroke of boldness, you reached out and grabbed his hand in your own. You shuddered when your soulmark brushed his skin as you intertwined your finger together. He stiffened at the touch a little bit, but didn’t pull away. You felt his eyes on you as you focused back onto the screen, not remembering in the slightest what had happened this episode. You felt your face heat up slightly under his gaze, but after a moment of silence from you both, he tightened his grip on your hand and turned his attention back to the screen as well. 

\---

Jason felt his heart stutter when Y/N’s head hit his shoulder. He looked down at her to see her fast asleep, face smooshed up against him as she took deep, even breaths. He’d been feeling her slowly relax into him more and more as the sun started to rise. She was obviously exhausted, but more determined to keep up her ridiculous act. He rolled his eyes. She should have just listened to him in the first place and went back to bed. He should probably wake her up and tell her so, but then again, her hand in his felt so warm and comforting and right. She mumbled something in her sleep and snuggled closer to him. It struck him how absolutely content she looked, how much she trusted him. Even after all the shit he had pulled when he had first got there, she had so easily forgiven him and tried so hard to help him. He 100% knew that he didn’t deserve any of this, her care, her kindness, her trust, but he couldn’t bring himself to pull away. Instead, he laid his head back, breathed in the comforting smell of her hair, and fell asleep. 

He didn’t wake up again until the sun had already reached its peak and was coming down again. 

\---

Holding hands became the norm whenever you were on the couch together. The nightmares continued, though, and you never failed to go and wake him when you heard it, despite his half-hearted grumbled protests. Sometimes you two would stay up and watch TV, or you would just sit on the couch in silence, fingers tangled. His most recent favorite was after you had discovered that he had a passion for books and would sit on the couch reading to him in the late hours of the night. Those moments always felt like the most intimate. 

After the week had passed, you had needed to go back into work. You had been slightly worried about leaving him alone, but you needed the money and he insisted that he was going to be fine. He was doing a lot better than when you first found him, but you were still relieved to see him at the end of every shift. Your life was becoming busy again as your coursework picked up and you took extra night shifts at work to make ends meet, but you were surprised at how quickly and entirely Jason had wound his presence into your life. He was always around to listen to your complaints about coworkers and school and to talk about your interests. As you slowly broke down the walls that he had put up, he started talking more too. You found that you rather liked his fiery personality, though you had to yell at him the one time that you had caught him exercising and he tore a stitch. He had a stubbornness to match yours and often things became a competition. He even started opening up a little bit about his dreams, much to your delight and horror. You were right when you figured that they mostly starred the Joker. He didn’t want to go into detail, but what he did tell you was enough to give you your own nightmares. There was still no words said about Batman and Robin, though. 

It had been a particularly long day at work and it was late. You had worked a double shift after staying up late to finish off a paper that was due and you just wanted to curl up in a blanket with some hot chocolate and destress. Jason had dinner ready when you got home (something that he had gotten into the habit of doing) and you found that you didn’t really have an appetite. He looked at you a little bit concerned, but didn’t say anything, which you were grateful for. After you were finally done and had washed the last dish, you wandered over to the living room to see Jason sitting on the couch. You eyed the news channel that was on, but didn’t comment. He had been watching the news a lot more, you’d noticed. Flinching every time Batman or Robin was mentioned. You’d tried to confront him about it, to no avail. Today you just walked over to the couch where he was sitting and said, “Scoot.”

He looked a little confused about your request, since that had come to be his side, but he complied anyway and you plopped down right next to him, pulling a thick blanket over yourself, wasting no time in snuggling into him. He wrapped an arm around you and pulled you in closer. 

“Rough day?” he asked, voice even. 

“The worst,” you whined to him overdramatically. His hand found yours and his thumb started rubbing along your stained fingers ever so gently. You felt the tension start to bleed out of you. It was one of your favorite things, him touching the mark like that. It was so deliciously intimate that you had taken to wearing gloves most of the time that you were out, just in case someone that wasn’t him accidentally brushed your fingers. That was actually part of your goal tonight. You had begun feeling jealous of the easy access that he had to your fingers and while you had gotten to occasionally brush your hand against his mark, it’s not like you could have your hands all over his face all the time. You pulled your hand away and brought it up to his face, humming contently as the marks brushed and the full feeling of your connection came through. You let your fingers skim over the mark and he stiffened and closed his eyes, but didn’t move away. You let yourself zone out, vaguely hearing the news reporter on the screen. 

“Stop,” Jason said suddenly, voice firm, his hand jumping up to peel yours away from his face and turning away from you. You looked up in shock, wondering what had caused that, but a second later you realized in horror that you had unconsciously traced the ‘J’ that was branded in his skin under the mark. 

“I’m sorry,” you whispered, looking into his sharp blue eyes. “Did I hurt you? I’ll be more careful.”

“There is no ‘more careful’,” Jason growls, “The bastard branded my face. He made damn sure that I had a clear reminder of just who owns me. Made sure that I’d always have his mark.” His voice was getting more strained as he went on. You recognized the signs that he was coming apart and quickly reached up to grab his face again, with both hands this time. You turn his head so that he has no choice but to look into your eyes. 

“No,” you say, fiercely, looking deep into his eyes to make sure that he’s understanding you. “That’s _my_ mark. Mine. He doesn’t get to own any part of you.” You’re a little surprised at the possessiveness bleeding through your voice, but you hold your ground and show him that you’re completely serious. He looks a little shocked too, but then he’s leaning forward and his lips are on yours. It’s a gentle kiss at first, but quickly morphs into something else. Suddenly, he’s kissing you like he needs it to survive. Your hands haven’t moved from their position on his face, but his have wrapped around you and are pulling you in so close that you’re having trouble remembering where your body ends and his begins. His lips are soft and insistent, and you’re meeting him with the same enthusiasm. Everything in that moment is, in a word, perfect. 

Eventually you need to pull back or else you’ll suffocate. You can feel his puffs of air across your lips that show that he is breathless as well and you keep your eyes closed for another moment, not wanting this to end. Then you open your eyes and look at him. He’s staring down at you with a big, lopsided grin on his face. You return it with a bright smile of your own. 

“So, you wanna tell me about your terrible day?” He asked, leaning back. 

“Yeah, terrible,” you say, giving a breathless giggle, unable to stay sad after that. 


	3. Knight Part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to thank everyone for their comments and kudos on the previous chapters <3

Life continued, and though you never explicitly talked about it, your relationship with Jason only grew. Occasional, sweet kisses turned into long make-out sessions on the couch which turned to sleepy morning pecks before work. You spent most nights on the couch with him, holding each other close. You had no doubt that you were falling for him fast, but he was your soulmate, so that was okay, right? Most of his wounds healed enough to where he could do normal activities without wincing in pain the whole time and all of his stitches had been removed. He began helping out in running errands like going to the grocery store. You had gone with him the first couple of times, not sure how he would react around crowds of people, but he didn’t seem to mind too much. You got the feeling that he had been something of an introvert before you met him, so you weren’t too worried. 

The nightmares became less and less frequent as you started spending more time sleeping on the couch with him (thank God your couch was decently sized for two), though he got more and more focused on watching the news and reading articles on your laptop. You heard him start muttering to himself whenever Batman or one of his Rogues was mentioned, but you could never quite catch what he was saying. After about a month and a half of living together, it seemed like things were starting to get normal again, which, of course, meant that things started to change. 

It started with a break-in. You didn’t exactly live in the nicest part of Gotham, so that had always been a possibility, but you also didn’t have much that was worth money, just like everyone else that lived in your shitty complex, so you figured that you were sort of hiding in plain sight. You weren’t sure what exactly prompted the late-night visit, but you were startled out of sleep by the crash of the door being kicked in and you felt Jason untangle himself from you where you were laying on the couch and jump to his feet. You blinked up after him, sleep leaving your body in a wave when your brain connected what you heard to what was happening.

“Stay here,” Jason commanded and then ran over to the entryway where you thought you could vaguely make out a bulky figure. Of course, you jumped to your feet and walked the opposite way, around the couch and put more distance between you and the intruder. You blearily looked around for something that you might be able to use as a weapon when you heard a couple of sharp grunts as Jason supposedly engaged them. 

It ended before you could even reach the nearest lightswitch to try and see what was going on. The lights illuminated the thug, who was on the ground and out cold. Jason was standing over him, holding the intruder up by the collar, with his fist still raised like he was ready to punch again if he saw any sign of movement. He blinked in the sudden light, but otherwise the fierce snarl on his face stayed the same. You noticed red blood staining his knuckles. 

“Jason?” you asked in confusion, your voice still thick from sleep. He tore his eyes away from the other man to glance over at you. Then, he unceremoniously dropped him to the ground with a dull thud and patted him down rather professionally. He pulled out a wallet and a knife from the man, and then grabbed the gun that had fallen to the floor in the fight. You stared at it with wide eyes. 

“Oh my god, what just happened?” you stuttered out, the shock making you breathe hard. “Are you okay?” Jason made his way across the room over to you, setting the items in his hand down carefully on the table along the way. Then he wrapped his arms around you and held you tightly. 

“It’s okay. Breathe. You’re safe. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you, I promise,” he said soothingly, pressing a few kisses into your hair as you tried to breathe deeply and clung to the front of his t-shirt. You let yourself press into him for a long moment, then pulled away when you felt like oxygen was finally getting to your brain. You turned around to look at the unconscious form of the man on your floor. His nose was still spilling fresh blood in the entryway carpet. 

“We’ve got to call the cops,” you murmured, then made a move to go for your phone on the coffee table. Jason stopped you. 

“No. I can handle this. Just go into the bedroom. It won’t take long,” he said, in that same voice like he was trying to soothe you still. 

“You can ‘handle this’? What does that even mean?” you asked, rolling your eyes.

“Just… trust me. I know what to do. No one can know that I’m here,” Jason said, stronger this time. He tensed, like he was ready to fight again. 

“Fine,” you say, throwing your hands up in exasperation. You didn’t really want to pick a fight when you had work in a few hours. “Fine. Just don’t take too long, please.” You really didn’t want to be alone in the apartment for any longer than you had to be. 

“I won’t,” he promised and then gave you a quick peck on the lips and watched you walk all the way to the bedroom and close the door. You sank into bed, hugging a pillow and leaning on the headboard. You heard dragging sounds, and then the close of a door and then you were alone. Part of your brain was telling you that you should really go see what he was doing with the intruder, the other half was happy that you didn't have to deal with it.

The next day at work was normal, until you read your email during a slow stretch. There was an email from your bank waiting for you about your student loans. You groan and open it, expecting bad news, but none comes as your eyes dully scan over the words one time, two times, three times. 

_Thank you for your loan payment! You have paid in full and the account has been closed--_

What?

You take a moment to go view your accounts, but see that they really are closed and that you can’t trace where the money had come from. You guess that the bank really didn’t care where the money came from, as long as it was paid. You blinked, trying to figure out what had just happened, but then were quickly called away by the demands of work and you forced it out of your mind while you completed your shift. 

When you got home, the first thing that you noticed was that the door had been fixed. Since it had been brutally kicked in last night, the frame and the locks had been destroyed when you left, but now they looked good as new. More than that, there had been two more deadbolts added to the door: another that opened from the outside and one that locked from within. You stared at it for a moment, but your keys worked on both and you let yourself in. 

“Jason?” you called when you opened the door, sure that you heard movement. You didn’t want to admit it, but you were still shaken from last night and seeing him sitting on the floor of the living room surrounded by wires and tools let you relax a bit. 

“Hey, Y/N. How was work?” he greeted you, but didn’t look up from the wire that he was currently stripping. 

“Good…,” you say, taking off your jacket and shoving it and your purse on the counter. You walked back around and stopped in front of him. “What do you have there?”

“It’s a security system for your place. Honestly, I should’ve done this ages ago. It’s all top of the line, it’ll protect your windows and doors while we’re away and at night. I don’t want another surprise like last night,” he answered nonchalantly. 

You eye the display and the wires that are now running around the house. He was right, they looked top of the line. They also looked expensive. It also looked like he was building most of it up from scratch, which really shouldn’t surprise you, but did. The way his fingers were moving deftly to strip and connect the wires told you that he had done this before. 

“Where’d you get all this?” you asked, moving over to the couch and sitting down, leaning over the armrest to look down at him. 

“I know a really good place for stuff like this. The owner gave me a great deal,” Jason said, now pausing his work and looked at you, hearing your suspicious tone. His eyes told you not to push. 

“Uh huh. Where did you get the money? I’m going to have to budget this in.”

“Don’t worry about it. It was a really good deal, I’ve got it covered.”

“Jason--,” you started, knowing that you weren’t going to be able to let this drop without a fight.

“Y/N,” he interrupted firmly. “After last night you should be fucking relieved about this. You should be relieved in general. Do I have to remind you that Harley saw your face that night? Who knows who she could have told, and I’m sure that all of them would be happy to come back and finish you off for her after what you did.”

Jason seemed a little too satisfied when you let fear wash over your face. You had really been trying to forget what had happened, but he had a point there. However, you were sure that he had either stolen the security system, or the money for the security system and that also had to be addressed. You tried a different tactic. 

“Okay, sure. You’ll never guess what happened today at work. Someone paid my student loans. In full. Isn’t that great?” you prompted, staring him straight in the eye, looking for any sort of prior knowledge. 

He had a better poker face than you could read. “Oh really? That’s great news.” His voice was emotionless. 

“You don’t know anything about that, do you? Y’know, since you suddenly have enough money to buy some sophisticated tech?”

He shrugged. “Rich assholes are always doing stupid charity things like paying student loans. I’m sure it helps them sleep at night.”

You bit your lip, knowing that if you kept at it, the resulting conversation wouldn’t be pretty. You felt like you needed to, though. He had been avoiding this topic for too long. 

“Bruce Wayne wouldn’t happen to be the rich asshole in question, would he?”

Jason froze, his mouth opening up in shock just a little bit, then he jumped to his feet, prompting you to stand as well. He took a few long strides toward you so that you had to tilt your head up slightly to meet his gaze. 

“Why would you think that?” he asked, voice growing low and cold. 

“You kept mentioning ‘Bruce’ in your sleep. It wasn’t hard to figure it out from there, Jason Todd.” You weren’t going to back down. 

“Wow, you must think you’re some sort of detective,” he said mockingly, doing nothing but flaring your temper further. 

“Did he give the money to you? Did you steal it? Does Bruce Wayne even know that his son is alive? He has to be worried sick and--”

“Don’t you dare talk to me about him like you know anything about it!” Jason was yelling now. 

“Jason, he’s your father--”

“HE ABANDONED ME! He left me there to rot with the Joker like I was nothing!” Jason’s eyes were burning into yours furiously. 

“I’m sure that’s not true. He and Dick were looking for you,” your voice grew softer under his rage.

“You don’t know that! You don’t know _anything_! He was supposed to come find me, but he never came. I dreamed- wished _every night_ that he would come find me. That I could get out of that _hell_. But every fucking night I was disappointed. The Joker came and beat me and let all of his little buddies in on the fun too until I knew for damn sure that he wasn’t coming. ” He laughed humorlessly, running a hand through his hair. “He never cared about me. Probably couldn’t wait to get rid of me. And _Dick_? I don’t even know him well enough to know if he did care. He didn’t stick around long enough to learn more than my name.”

“You don’t know that,” you whispered, barely loud enough for him to hear.

“HE REPLACED ME! He threw me out like I was trash and got something better! Fuck Bruce Wayne! And Dick Grayson! And _Timothy Drake_!”

You stepped forward as a single tear ran down his face and you wiped it away with your hand, despite his flinch. At your touch, the tension seemed to melt out of him and you stepped closer and brought him into your arms, squeezing him as tightly as you could when you felt his breath come out in shudders. He slowly wrapped his arms around you back, and you maneuvered him to the couch and sat down without breaking the embrace. He began to cry in earnest then, letting out heartbreaking sobs that shook his whole body. You just held him through it, letting him get it out until he had nothing left to give and he was slumped on you in exhaustion. You both fell asleep on the couch that night, holding each other as close as you could possibly get. 

In the morning he was, predictably, quiet after a night full of nightmares and little sleep. You fussed over him a little bit before he snapped at you to go to work and cast worried looks at him over your shoulder as you did so. You told yourself that you would try your best to get off work early to come spend some more time with him that night. You had no idea how to help him, but you were damn sure that you were going to try. 

It ended up not mattering that you got home early. When you did open the door and walk in, he was nowhere to be found. You kept yourself busy as you waited, and as the sun began to sink further, you started to worry that he had left for good. He finally walked in shortly after it had gotten dark, completely exhausted. He didn’t even spare you a glance as he headed for the shower, taking a long time. 

“Where were you?” you asked once he had gotten out. You winced at how demanding that sounded. 

“Out,” he said in a clipped tone. You watched from the kitchen table as he disappeared into the living and you heard him sit down on the couch. 

“I can see that. Out where?” You followed him, crossing your arms around yourself in a way that said that you didn’t want another fight. 

“Just catching up with some old friends. Come over here,” he held out his arms in invitation. You raised an eyebrow and stared at him for a moment, but when it was clear that he wasn’t going to elaborate you just sighed and sat down next to him, letting him wrap you in his arms and pretend like there was nothing wrong. 

That night started a trend of many nights. It was always up in the air whether he would be there or not when you got home. He would always be vague about where he was or what he was doing, though, and no amount of prying on your part would loosen his lips. He was also always exhausted, sometimes coming home with new injuries (that were already treated). Sometimes he started not coming home at all and that scared the hell out of you. You two started fighting a lot more too when he wouldn’t tell you where he was going. A lot of nights when he would get back late, you would just glare at him and then disappear into the bedroom. Your best guesses at what he was up to involved either vigilantism, or criminal activity and since he was being so tight-lipped, you were leaning toward the latter, even though you desperately wanted to believe that you were wrong. As infuriating as it all was, you never had the heart to kick him out, though with each day of silence you were getting closer.

“You going to be home tonight?” you asked at the breakfast table, watching him fiddle with more of the electronics that he had been bringing in lately. 

“Dunno. Maybe,” he said, not looking at you. 

“Let me rephrase that. You’re going to be home tonight, or you’re not going to be home at all.” He looked up at you, surprised by the conviction in your voice. You glared down at him. 

“Y/N--” he started, but you weren’t going to let him weasel his way out of this one. 

“No, I’ve had enough. We are going to talk tonight when I get off work.” You kept your voice calm and cool, not letting any of your anger seep through. There was a brief staredown, but eventually he sighed and gave in. 

“Okay, fine. I’ve also been meaning to talk to you about some stuff.”

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

The two of you glared at each other like children until you broke off to put on your coat and walk out the door. 

Jason was actually there when you returned. You knew you shouldn’t have been surprised, but you were. He had even made dinner, from the mouthwatering smell in the kitchen, which was sweet of him. He was in the shower, which gave you a few precious moments to psych yourself up for the coming conversation. No more dodging the question or silent treatments, you were going to find out what he was doing or you were going to demand that he left. It was simple. You could do this. You wandered over to the kitchen and turned on the sink to wash your hands before dinner. Nothing came out. That was weird, you’d have to go check the main. 

A knock on the door broke you out of your thoughts and you went to go answer it, preparing to tell whoever it was to fuck off. The door swung open to reveal a large man in body armor. He had silver hair, an eye patch, and that intimidating air around him that told you that answering that door without looking had probably been a bad idea.

“Hello dearie. Is Jason around?” he asked, his voice smooth with a thick accent. 

Shit. You waited just a second too long before saying, “Who?”

“Who indeed,” he smirked and then pushed his way past you into the apartment. You noticed that he was armed to the teeth as he passed by and you took a few steps back to get out of his way. This definitely wasn’t good. “Come on over here. If I was going to hurt you I would have done so already,” he drawled and walked casually into the kitchen. You hesitantly followed him, your heartbeat picking up. 

“Smells divine. The kid’s a good cook,” he said cheerily, opening the pot on the stove to view its contents. 

“Who are you?” you asked, finding your voice, though it still sounded shaky. 

“Oh, how rude of me. The kid didn’t tell you about me, huh? Looks like we have that in common. It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you,” he said, walking smoothly back to you and then grabbing your hand and bringing it up to his lips for a kiss in a very old-fashioned gesture. You were too surprised to protest. Then he abruptly twisted your arm so that your palm was face up, causing you to squeak out in alarm more than pain, and his eyes roamed hungrily over your soulmark. A gloved hand came up to run gentle fingers over it and you shuddered and blushed, causing him to look up at you. A dark look entered his eyes as he looked you up and down. He opened his mouth to say something when a different voice cut through the air. 

“Get the _fuck_ away from her,” Jason growled, sounding more furious than you had ever heard him. The man looked over your shoulder and you twisted to look too, though your hand was held firmly in his grasp. Jason was standing behind you, wearing some sort of red accented combat gear with a strange symbol on his chest. He had a gun in his hands, but it was held low since you were in the way of his shot. 

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Knight. I was only being polite,” the man drawled, dropping your hand and you immediately moved a few steps away from him, turning so that you could see both him and Jason, who was now pointing the gun at the man. “I had to meet the girl behind that mark on your face.”

“Get. Out. Now.” Jason flicked the safety off and kept his aim steady. Your brain was barely keeping up with the conversation. 

“Relax, kid. We’re all friends here. I was merely curious about what sort of detail you’d provided on this place. Something this... valuable should be adequately protected.” The man slowly put his hands up and there was a tense silence until Jason lowered the gun. “I must’ve missed them, though, because it seems like there’s nothing.”

“Posting guards would only make this place a target,” Jason said, putting his gun away. 

“Not posting guards will only make regrets. Especially if she’s opening the door to strangers.” Jason shot you an angry look and you just stared guiltily back. 

“I’m not paying you to get into my business. Just do your job,” Jason snapped back and walked further into the room until he had put himself between you and the stranger. You noticed that he had several more guns strapped to his body. You thought you could also see a knife sticking out of his boot. 

“Speaking of the job. I called you earlier to let you know that we’re moving it up. Starting tonight. The formula’s done early and changing the schedule will make it harder for any moles to alert their contacts. Hope you’re ready.” The man eyed you behind Jason as he spoke. 

Jason gave a curt nod. “Understood. Give me a moment and I’ll be right out.”

The man looked between you with a knowing smirk and then strode back to the entryway, crossing his arms and watching you with detached interest. Jason seemed to be fine to ignore him and he turned to you. 

“Jason, who is that? What job?” you asked softly. 

“Hey, Y/N. Don’t wo--”

“You better not fucking tell me not to worry about it. What the hell was that?” you hissed, starting to get more frantic.

“Listen, there’s something that I have to do. That’s what I’ve been up to for the past month, planning this job and I swear, I _swear_ that I’ll tell you about it afterwards, but right now I have to go,” Jason said, cupping your face in his hands and looking desperately into your eyes like he was trying to convey how serious he was. “For now, I need you to promise me that you won’t leave this apartment for the next couple days for _any reason_.”

“What--?” His grip on your face tightened, causing you to hesitate. 

“Please. Promise me. _Please_. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you,” he begged. You could feel his hands shaking under his firm grip and he looked so desperate that you found yourself nodding. When he didn’t seem satisfied you murmured out a small, “I promise.”

Relief flooded his eyes and he pressed a gentle kiss on your forehead, like you might break if he did it too hard, then he released you and walked back to the hallway to grab a bag that you hadn’t noticed before. 

“I’ll only be gone a few days. You should have everything you need,” he said, throwing the bag over his shoulder. 

The mystery man who had been watching this whole exchange decided to speak up, walking back towards you and you could see Jason stiffen, but he didn’t protest again. The man pulled out a handgun from somewhere on his body and placed it on the table. 

“For protection,” he said simply, then turned and stalked out the door. You looked down at the gun for a long moment, then back up to Jason. He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t say anything about it. Instead he just fixed his gaze with yours and said, “Be careful. Don’t answer the door or take any unknown calls. I will be back for you.”

You stared at him, knowing that arguing further was only going to be pointless and chewed your bottom lip. “Be safe,” you said, deciding that that was what mattered right now. 

“Never,” he said, with a lopsided, cocky smile and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at him. He looked like he was going to say something more, but then a sharp knock on the door frame interrupted him. He just fixed one last loving look on you, and then disappeared out the door, closing it with a bang. 

You stood in the same spot for what felt like forever after he had left, trying to piece together what had just happened. You were definitely angry at Jason for not bothering to explain to you what was going on fully before he left, but also terrified of his vague warnings. That other man had also been bad news, you were sure even though you didn’t recognize him. Also, Jason’s demand that you stayed inside didn’t bode well. If he was concerned about you then that probably meant that there was danger for other civilians coming as well. Your stomach dropped at the thought of innocent people getting hurt because of your soulmate. There had to be something that you could do. 

There might be. You had been playing with the idea in your head for a while, ever since you had found out Jason’s true identity, but you hadn’t done it yet because you were at least trying to respect his boundaries. Now, it seemed like that was going to need to be now or never. You had to go find Bruce Wayne yourself since Jason wasn’t going to. The thought made your head buzz in apprehension. You were pretty sure that he was Batman and so the idea of just going and talking to him seemed laughable. He probably already knew what was happening. But what if he didn’t? You felt like you owed it to Gotham to at least go make sure that its protector knew something was going down. But you’d need proof. Something to get you through the door. 

You walked to your storage closet and started tossing items out of the way in a hurry. You hadn’t known why you’d done it, but you’d kept the old Robin costume that he’d been wearing the first night after you peeled it off of him and washed it. Maybe you always knew that keeping some sort of proof of that night around would help, or maybe you were just a sentimental idiot. Either way, you were glad when your hands closed around the shredded kevlar. You grabbed the top, since it was the most recognizable with the symbol on it and then ran out to your car, ignoring the pounding of rain. As you crossed to the door you briefly considered the handgun that lay on your table. Should you bring it...? 

It probably wasn't the best idea to go talk to Batman with a gun.

You briefly felt guilty that you were going against the promise that you had literally just made to Jason, but you didn’t let that stop you as you sped off down the street for Bristol. If you were right about this, you could be potentially saving lives. 

You pulled up to the closed gates of Wayne Manor, only having gotten lost once. It was hardly ever that you had a reason to go to this part of the city and the gates seemed to loom over you ominously. You approached, wrapping your light jacket around yourself tightly as you got completely soaked. You had been in such a rush to get out that you had failed to put your warm coat back on. The intercom had a large call button, which you pressed and then waited. 

“My dear girl, what could you possibly be doing here at this hour?” a voice rang out from the gate just barely loud enough to hear over the rain. It sounded like an old Englishman. You looked up and spotted a camera pointed down at you. You looked up into it as you answered. 

“I’m here to-- I need to talk to Bat-- Bruce Wayne,” you stuttered, not having planned at all what you were going to say. “I need to talk to Bruce Wayne. It’s urgent. It’s about Jason. Jason Todd.” As you kept talking you got more confident. 

“I believe that the master is busy at the moment, perhaps you could come at a different time. Thank you very much.”

“Please,” you said, then you bit your lip and held up the torn uniform toward the camera, making sure to spread it out and display the symbol. There was a short gasp on the other end, and then the gates began to open. You rushed back to your car and jumped in to drive the rest of the way up to the biggest house that you had ever seen in your life. It was bigger than your entire apartment complex. You shook your head to clear your thoughts and then walked up the steps to the door, clutching the Robin shirt tightly to your chest. You could feel your heart pounding in your chest when the doors opened as soon as you were about to knock. An old man greeted you. He was basically exactly what you had imagined from hearing his voice. 

“Come in, Miss, you’re absolutely soaked. Leave your shoes and jacket here and I’ll go fetch you a nice hot cup of tea,” he said pleasantly, but there was a distinct frown on his face. You complied with his requests even though you felt bare without your shoes or jacket. Your hair still dripped onto the polished marble floors and you felt guilty. The butler (because what else could he be in that suit?) led you to a sitting room immediately to the left and dug out a blanket to hand you. 

“The young masters will be with you in just a moment, you caught them at an inconvenient time. I’ll be right back with that tea. Any requests?”

“No, I’m okay with whatever,” you mumbled, not used to being waited on like this. You quickly wrapped the blanket around yourself to try and stop shivering. The butler just tutted at you and then disappeared out of the room. You looked around and gathered your thoughts, though that was hard in this room. You were sure that you could pick anything and sell it for enough to pay your rent for months. You were sitting on a soft white couch facing another couch and a small wooden coffee table in between. There were several nice paintings on the walls and an ordinate grandfather clock against one wall. 

“Okay, stop. You can do this,” you whispered to yourself, trying to get out of your head. You needed to get your shit together so that you could tell Batman what he needed to know. Worst case he would just laugh at you and kick you out. There was no way that the man was as cruel as Jason had made him out to be, right? He was a hero. You could do this. You can do this. 

\---

The girl was sitting rather stiffly on the couch, dripping onto it and the floor as she shivered. There was nothing immediately impressive about her, but Bruce couldn’t take his eyes off of the red fabric that she had clutched to her chest. She hadn’t noticed them come in yet. It seemed like she was nervous, with her eyes closed, muttering under her breath. 

“Good evening. Alfred tells me that you have something for me?” Bruce said, and her eyes flew open. She let out a gasp of surprise and jumped to her feet, the blanket falling off her shoulders. 

“Um, hi. Yeah, I have um, here. It was Jason’s,” she said in a faltering voice. She was blushing as she held out the red fabric. Bruce walked over and took it in his hands, running them over the familiar kevlar, pausing as he traced the Robin symbol. 

“Where did you get that?” Tim said to his left, watching Bruce inspect the old uniform. 

“I, um…” she choked on her words, trailing off and staring at Tim in confusion. 

“I’m Dick Grayson,” Dick said smoothly with a wink, deciding correctly that she needed to be calmed down if this discussion was going to be productive. “This is Bruce Wayne and Timothy Drake. And you are?”

“Y/N,” she mumbled, but it seemed like his calming voice was working as she took a few deep breaths. Her eyes lingered on Tim for a moment when he was introduced, like she hadn’t expected him to be there. 

“Nice to meet you, why don’t we sit down?” Dick suggested and then crossed the room to sit next to her on the couch. Bruce and Tim took the couch opposite of her and it was clear from the tenseness in her muscles that she could tell that she had the intense focus of the entire room. Dick kindly wrapped the blanket around her shoulders again and she shot him a grateful look. He smiled calmly back at her. 

“Where did you get this?” Bruce asked again, keeping his voice soft. The boys recognized it as the voice he used with victims as Batman. 

“I pulled it off Jason. In Arkham,” she said, seeming more relaxed. 

“Arkham?” Bruce winced. That’s where Jason had been all this time? They had searched Arkham, what did he miss? How could he have let this happen? 

“Yeah, in the abandoned wing, there was a tunnel under one of the cells. That’s where I found him…,” she had a haunted look on her face. Apparently the memory wasn’t exactly pleasant. He didn’t expect it to be. 

“Okay, do you remember the cell number? We’ll go get him,” Bruce said, his voice sounded tired, like it had since Jason had disappeared. He clutched the shirt in his hands, trying not to let them shake. She was giving him a weird look. 

“He’s not at Arkham,” she said slowly, confusion in her voice. 

“But you said-- where is he?” Tim asked. 

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m here,” she said, looking between all of the men in the room in confusion. They were all just as confused as she was. 

“How do you not know where he is? Did someone move him?” Dick asked, trying to piece it together. 

“What’re you--? Oh my god, no. What? He’s not dead, I got him out of Arkham. He’s been living with me for like two months,” Y/N said in a rush. The room went dead quiet as all three of them stared at her in shock. Not a second later there was a loud crash and everyone turned to look at the entrance of the room where Alfred had been walking in with a tray full of teacups. He was staring at them all with the same shock that Bruce was sure was on all of their faces. 

“Dreadfully sorry. I’ll clean this up right away. Please carry on,” Alfred said after a second and turned to leave the room. 

All eyes turned back to the girl and she seemed to shrink into herself. 

“I think, maybe, you should start at the beginning?” Dick said kindly, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder, but Bruce could see that he was shaking too. 

“Okay. So, um, I’m an intern at Gotham general and I had to go deliver some files to Arkham. I took a couple wrong turns and ended up in one of the abandoned wings, but I noticed that a cell door was open and that there was a trap door thing in it. Then someone was coming so I sort of decided to hide from them in it?” she sounded like she couldn’t believe how stupid it sounded. “I swear it made sense at the time... Anyway, there were a lot of stairs and then there was this room at the bottom that was open and Jason was in the middle of it, wearing that,” she nodded at the costume. 

“Describe the room,” Bruce prompted. 

“Um it was a little bit smaller than this room. There was one hanging light in the middle of it pointing down at the chair. The rest of it was covered in junk. I don’t…” she trailed off at a loss, like she was trying to remember more, but not knowing what Bruce was looking for. Her description roughly coincided with the video that the Joker had sent, which gave her story more credibility. He just nodded at her to go on. 

“Jason was-- Jason was on the floor, crying and there were two other people there, but they were-- they were dead. Shot. Um. They were both dressed like Batman.” She pulled in another breath and Bruce could see Nightwing’s hand tighten on her shoulder. “Jason was in really bad shape. That’s when the Joker showed up. He was… terrifying. And then he was coming at me and laughing and so I-- I picked up a gun off the floor and I shot him.” The last couple of words came out in a rush, like she was expecting them not to believe her. The three of them shared a glance around the room. She kept her gaze fixed on the floor.

“Is he dead?” Tim asked after a moment. They were all thinking the same thing, that the Joker hadn’t been seen in months even though he was out of Arkham. 

“I don’t know?” She asked it like it was a question, her eyes coming up to meet Tim’s.

“Where’d you shoot him?” 

“I didn’t _check_. I shot the gun in his general direction and then he fell over and Harley was screaming and I just grabbed Jason and got the hell out of there.”

“Wait, Harley was there too?” Dick asked in confusion. It was obvious that she didn’t have her story together, but the way that she was shaking and the fear in her voice told them that she was either an incredible actress, or that everything that she was saying was true. It seemed to be the latter. 

“Yeah, just him and Harley, and the two dead guys. And me and Jason.”

“You carried Jason out of there?” Bruce asked and her eyes snapped to him. 

“Not exactly. He was super drugged. He could stand, barely. I basically dragged him out of there and back to my car.”

There was another long moment of silence while they all took in the story. It was pretty hard to believe, with that video that the Joker had sent them, but Bruce wouldn’t put it past the Joker to have faked that. He should have seen it. 

“How long ago did you say this was?” Dick finally broke the silence, frowning. 

“Ummm like two months? Give or take,” she said and suddenly fury rose in Bruce’s chest. 

“Why wasn’t I informed about this?” he demanded, making her tense up again.

“He wouldn’t let me take him to a hospital and then he passed out before he could tell me where to take him, so I brought him back to my apartment and did what I could for him. He was a mess. Especially when he woke up he was confused and…,” she put her hand to her throat unconsciously. “It took him a while to calm down.”

“Fine. But why didn’t you bring him here when he did? I’m sure he was asking for us,” Bruce said, his voice getting louder as he got more worked up. 

“Asking? Mr. Wayne, every time I brought up his family, or _Batman_ , he went into a full blown panic attack. He still does. He makes it sound like you practically _handed_ him to the Joker,” she was suddenly looking straight back at Bruce, her expression was fierce, like she was ready to fight them all if what she said was true. 

“Of course that’s not true!” Bruce yelled. “How dare you even _imply_ \--”

“B!” Nightwing said, shooting Bruce a dangerous look and he struggled to get his temper under control. 

“You had no right to keep him from me. Even if he didn’t want it, I should have been informed. Who the hell do you think you are?” Bruce said, glaring at her. His voice was still hard, but at least he wasn’t yelling anymore. 

“Bruce, I’m sure she didn’t mean--” Dick started, ever the peacekeeper. 

“No, he has a point,” she said, the fight suddenly leaving her at his words. She slowly lifted her left hand, still balled into a tight fist like it had been since they started this conversation, and then, after a second of thought, deliberately uncurled her fingers. She turned her palm up, so that they could see her fingers. It looked like they had just been dipped in fresh blood, but there was nothing on them.

“You can’t be saying--” Bruce’s voice faltered as he stared at the mark.

Dick, from beside her, took her hand into his as if in a trance. “I’ve never seen one in person before,” he whispered and his thumb brushed over it. She shivered and let out an uncomfortable noise and he immediately let go, murmuring a quiet “sorry”. 

“It’s okay. I would’ve come to you sooner, but I-- I figured he was safe with me. I was trying to help him through it. We were making _progress_.” Her voice took on a bitter edge. 

“And now we’ll get to why you’re here?” Tim asked, voice level while Bruce and Dick looked like they were struggling to figure out their emotions. 

“Yeah. He’s been... disappearing lately. He wasn’t telling me what he was up to, but then we got a visitor after work today.” The focus was all on her again and she ducked her head while she talked. 

“Visitor?” Tim prompted when no one else said anything. 

“I didn’t recognize him. He was big, silver hair, eyepatch, accent?” She described. They all got a dark look on their face. 

“Deathstroke,” Tim said seriously. She just shrugged. “What did he want?” 

“He wanted to… meet me? It sounded like they were working together. He said that the job had ‘moved up to tonight’ and then Jason basically begged me to stay indoors for the next few days.”

They all shared another dark glance between them while the girl looked around at each of them, waiting for someone to explain what was happening. 

“Did they say what the job was?” Bruce asked after a moment. She just shook her head. 

“No, Jason just said it was ‘something he had to do’,” she said, making air quotes with her soulmark flashing and distracting. “You’re… going to help him, right?”

“Of course we will,” Tim said without hesitation at her wide-eyed look. “Is there anything else? _Anything at all_ that could point us in the right direction for what is going to happen? Literally just anything unusual that you remember from the day?”

She hummed to herself unconsciously as she thought for a moment. “Yeah… there was something strange. My water was turned off when I got back. I meant to go check it, but-- Oh! They said that the formula was ready early, but I didn’t know what that meant.”

“The water plant,” Dick said, and the rest of them knew that the strange gang patterns that they had observed around there had to be related. “He can’t be working with…” They all stood up like they were going to leap into action that second. 

“Stay here, Y/N. Alfred will take care of you until we get back,” Bruce commanded in a tone that left little room for argument. 

“Okay…,” she said, but she was biting her lip like she wasn’t sure. “Tim?” Tim looked over at her, a little surprised that she was addressing him. 

“Yeah?”

“You should… be careful. I forgot to say that in the room in Arkham there were a lot of pictures of Batman and Robin hung up. Not Jason. You. He… wasn’t pleased,” she warned and Bruce felt shame rise in his chest and Tim looked down guiltily. If the Joker was still alive, Bruce was going to tear him apart limb by limb. They all three left the room in a hurry to get to the cave and start with the rescue mission. 

\---

They all left the room, leaving you alone with your thoughts. You hoped to God that this had been the right thing to do and that you weren’t going to hurt Jason further. You knew, you _knew_ that Jason wasn’t evil. He had just gone through hell and needed help getting better. Help that you were reasonably sure that you had been giving before this all blew up. Who knew how low his mind would have sunk without you there for him the past few months. You hoped that Bruce and his kids understood that, and that they would bring him back to you soon. You hoped that Jason would understand that you had gone to them because you cared about him. You knew that he probably wouldn’t see it that way. 

“Miss Y/N, I have the tea that I promised you,” Alfred’s voice came through the doorway, startling you. The older man came and put an ornate teacup in front of you and a tray on the table filled with honey, tea, and biscuits. 

“Thank you, Alfred,” you said quietly and grabbed the delicate cup, terrified that you might break it. You took a sip and even though you weren’t always one for tea, had to admit that it was exactly what you needed right now. 

“You made the right choice, coming here to them. They care deeply about Master Todd,” Alfred said, and you immediately started to wonder whether the man had telepathy. 

“I hope so,” you sighed. “I might feel better if it were you going after him, y’know. You were the only one that he shared good memories of.”

“I assure you that there are many fond memories of Master Todd in this household, he just has to be reminded,” Alfred said comfortingly. 

“I can see why he respects you so much, you seem good at knowing what people need,” you say after another moment. “Also your cooking. He really liked your cooking, and I feel like I have to thank you because I really liked his cooking and he said you taught him.” Your lips twitched up into a fond smile, remembering nights spent in the kitchen together. 

“I am honored that he remembered what I taught him, and that you enjoyed it together,” Alfred said, giving you a smile of his own. “It is good to know that he had someone special watching over him while he was away. Better to know that someone is watching over him now. Soulmate bonds are historically something that only shows up when _needed_.”

You stayed silent, waiting for him to elaborate, but he just took your empty teacup and walked back out, leaving you alone again to ponder his words. You were going to go crazy, just sitting here alone wondering what was happening without you. You couldn’t shake the nervous energy that you had and you got up and began to pace around the room. Alfred said that you had been right in coming here, but you weren’t so sure. Jason didn’t want to be near his family, he had made that much clear to you. He didn’t want it, but it was clear to you that that was what he needed. To see that his family cared about him. To know that they didn’t toss him aside thoughtlessly. You knew that they were going to have a hard time getting that through to him, though, with how long it had taken for him to open up partially to you, but how could you help? They were all out there, while you were stuck here, hoping that they would just magically work it all out. Yeah right, like that was going to happen. Not with Jason. You felt like even though it hadn’t been a long time, you knew Jason like the back of your hand. He was stubborn and angry and petty and _hurt_. But he was also kind and dorky and loyal and funny. You knew him like you knew yourself and it came to you all at once. You knew what he needed. 

He needed you. 

Your jacket and shoes were already neatly placed by the door when you rushed over and you silently thanked Alfred, still a little in awe of him. The dash to the water plant went by in a blur and sure enough you saw the batmobile parked out the front. You barely even turned off the engine before you were running into the building. The front door had been blasted open and you hesitated right outside of it. This was probably a bad idea. You had no idea what was going on in there and running in would probably only put you in the way of something horrible. But you didn’t hear anything inside, so you cautiously tiptoed your way in. It was dark, but you didn’t see any movement. Your heartbeat started to pick up. It was such a large building, with lots of large tanks and multiple levels. Now where were you supposed to go?

A couple of loud bangs answered your question for you and you looked around until you caught sight of some stairs. Whatever was happening was happening above you. You took a deep breath and ran over. Jason needed you. You kept repeating that over and over to give yourself courage as you took the stairs up as quietly as possible. The sounds of a struggle became clearer with every step. 

“Jason, stop! You don’t have to do this, we can work this out, please!” The voice was Dick’s. Well, Nightwing’s. You crouched down and took a peek at what was going on in the room. 

Nightwing was crouched over Robin, holding a hand to his own side which was steadily bleeding. Robin appeared to be passed out. Your heart twisted in fear at seeing them hurt. Standing in front of them with a raised gun was Jason. At least you were pretty sure that was him. It was the same body armor that you had seen, but his face was now covered with an intricate helmet. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the room. 

“Step aside, Dick. I need to finish up here. Don’t want to keep Bruce waiting,” Jason said, stepping closer, pointing the gun right between Nightwing’s eyes. His voice was modified through the helmet, coming out in a garbled mess, but his anger and hurt made its way through to you.

Your feet were moving before you could even think about it. A few steps in, you kicked something and all eyes in the room went to you. You reached them in a few more steps and you could see Jason get even more tense, if that was possible. When you reached him, you stopped right next to him, looking up into the helmet. 

“...Jason?” you asked, suddenly unsure of yourself now that you had gotten here. It was hard to focus on his face when it was some sort of screen and your voice came out more than a little afraid. 

A hand came up to the helmet and there was a hissing sound as it opened to reveal your soulmate’s face. He looked incredibly pissed off and you couldn’t help but to crumple a little at his expression. 

“Dammit Y/N. I told you not to leave the apartment.” His words were pissed off too. His voice was making it clear that it was a huge struggle for him to remain even this calm. You hardly even recognized his voice even without the modifier. You looked between him and Nightwing, who had also tensed up like he was expecting Jason to attack you. The gun was still leveled at his face and he kept his eyes trained on it. 

“What the hell are you doing, Jason? This isn’t you,” you said, keeping your voice soft and stepping even closer. Everything about the situation was screaming at you to run away, but you couldn’t be afraid of Jason. He wouldn’t hurt you. Right?

“The fuck do you know? I was with the Joker for longer than I’ve been with you because of these bastards,” Jason spat, still in a rage. He readjusted his grip on the gun. Nightwing’s eyes darted over to you for a second, his face showing clear concern. You prayed that he trusted you to handle this. 

“I know _you_ , Jason. I don’t care if it hasn’t been a long time. I’m supposed to know you better than anyone, and I _know_ that _you_ know that it wasn’t their fault,” you said, then ever so slowly moved so that you were in front of him, with Nightwing to your back. You reached out and placed your shaking hand on his wrist. You weren’t sure that this was going to work until he let you slowly push his arm down, getting him to lower the gun off of Nightwing. You weren’t sure whether it was because your words got to him, or because he wasn’t about to kill Dick in cold blood right in front of you, but you would take the win either way. 

“And it’s not Batman’s fault, either,” you continued, still staring straight into his eyes. You finally started seeing something other than red hot anger in his eyes. It was hard to pin down exactly what it was that you were seeing, but he seemed to be snapping out of his trance the longer that you were talking to him. 

“Then who’s fault is it?!” Jason yelled, causing you to flinch at the sudden change in volume. You had to stop yourself from taking a few steps back from him, your heart rate and breathing picking up further. 

“I don’t know, Jason! Maybe no one’s. Maybe everyone’s. This isn’t the answer, though. You need to end this. Right now.” Your voice was shaking, but you kept your eyes on his. You tried to make it crystal clear that you weren’t going to back down, and that you weren’t going to forgive him if he didn’t. 

There was a silence for a minute while you two stared each other down, but then it was interrupted by the sound of multiple distant explosions, though still loud enough to startle you. Jason snapped to look through a broken window on the other side of the room and you followed his gaze to see movement in the large room below. It was dark, but you thought you could make out at least a dozen figures fighting with plenty of gunshots that echoed around the walls. If you squinted, you thought that one of the figures could have been Batman. 

“Shit. Stay here,” he ordered suddenly, then strode over to the corner of the room where there was the large bag stashed. You watched in shock as he pulled a rather nasty looking rifle out of the bag and expertly assembled it. Then he jumped up onto the edge of the broken window and pulled out something that looked like a grappling gun.

“Wait! Where are you going?” you called after him, but he didn’t even look back at you. 

“I’m ending this,” he called, and then he jumped. 

No, you had to go after him. You started toward the window, but then a sound behind you made you remember the other occupants of the room. You spun around and saw that Nightwing was now focusing on Robin, who was starting to open his eyes. Oh thank God he wasn’t dead. You sank to a crouch in front of them. 

“Are you guys okay?” you asked, your voice sounded strange to you. 

“We’ll be fine. And… thanks for that,” Nightwing said, putting a hand on your shoulder carefully, and you realized that you were shaking. Scratch that, you were crying. You didn’t even notice until now. You half-heartedly wiped at your eyes. 

“You’re hurt. Let me take a look,” you said, trying to distract yourself from what you were sure was coming and you gently took Nightwing’s hand away from his side. Bullet wound. And Tim looked like he might have a concussion by the unfocused way he was staring at you. They didn’t seem like they were dying, but they were both probably out of commission for the rest of the night. You cursed under your breath. Someone had to go stop Jason from making a huge mistake. The sounds of gunshots outside still echoed and they felt like they were pounding against your skull. 

“I’ve got to go--,” you started frantically, but Nightwing cut you off. 

“No. I’m not going to let you run into the middle of a firefight. Help me over to the window,” Nightwing ordered and you let him lean on your as he stood up with a grunt. You winced, he really shouldn’t be moving around, especially if the bullet was still inside of him, but you two made it over to the window and looked down. The fighting had stopped, several bodies were laying on the ground, not moving. Batman was finishing up the rest of them when there was another explosion. Rubble and twisted pieces of equipment rained down on Batman and you gasped as Nightwing tensed beside you. 

A figure, no, a monster, stepped from the shadows and as Batman was clawing his way out of the rubble. Any relief that you had that Batman was alright was immediately replaced with a fresh wave of fear as the figure hovered over the hero and then began dragging him across the room, quickly handcuffing him to one of the pipes. There were voices, but you couldn’t hear them over the pounding of the blood through your ears. Batman was going to die right now because you had failed. 

“There,” Nightwing said quietly beside you and you looked up to where he was pointing to see Jason on one of the taller pieces of equipment, setting up a shot with the gun. Your heart stuttered as you stared at the scene, completely helpless to do anything about it. You felt Nightwing’s hand tighten around your shoulder and you glanced at him to see his eyes on you, looking concerned. You tore your gaze away from him and focused on the scene below. Why wasn’t Nightwing warning them? You needed to warn them. You tried to suck in a breath to scream, but you found that you couldn’t. You were too late anyway. 

A loud gunshot pierced the room and Batman lurched forward. In an instant, the monster was on him, tearing him apart with its wicked claws. You felt like you were frozen to the spot, watching the gruesome scene in front of you and oh god, there was so much blood. So much blood. You had a brief flashback to another loud gunshot. You felt the gun kick in your hands and heard the abrupt cutting off of laughter. Then it started back up again. You looked for the gun in your hands, but there was nothing there. They were covered in blood. Batman’s blood. You had killed him. You…

Why was Nightwing just standing there staring at you like that? He had to get down there and help. You had to. You tried to tell him that, tell him anything, but no words would come out of your mouth. He approached you slowly (when had you moved?) and you registered that there was something in his hand. This was bad. Fear gripped you and you turned to get away, but he was faster. He grabbed you around the middle and then you felt a pinch at your neck. Everything went black. 

When you came to, you noticed that you were in a bed, but it was too soft to be your own. It smelled clean and you were so comfortable that you never wanted the dream to end, but when you realized that you had no idea where you were you opened your eyes in a panic. It was light outside. You were in a really really nice room. Nicer than you had ever-- oh. You were probably back in the Wayne manor. You sat up and kicked the blankets off of you as you started to remember what had happened. The door opened. 

“Ah, it’s good to see that you’re up, Ms. Y/N.” It was Alfred. He entered the room and set a glass of water down next to you on the bedside, which you immediately grabbed and downed, realizing how thirsty you were in that instant. 

“Alfred! What happened? How did I get here? Is everyone okay?” The string of questions didn’t seem to phase the old man. 

“Everyone is fine. Thanks, in part, to you I am told,” Alfred said with a small smile on his face. 

“Everyone?” you asked, startled. Did he now know? You dropped your eyes. “Alfred--”

“Good morning, Y/N. How are you feeling?” Your blood froze. 

Bruce Wayne stood in the doorway of the room, with a few scratches on his face and his arm in a sling, but otherwise well and very much alive. 

“But-- How? You--,” you sputtered, still trying to piece together the fragments. You had been fairly sure that Batman had died last night. Could you have been wrong about it being Bruce Wayne?

“It’s alright. The confusion is normal, it’ll pass. There was quite a lot of airborne fear toxin in the water plant last night. You seem to have failed to inoculate yourself before rushing in to save us,” Bruce said, frowning down at you as you tried to remember. 

“So… what actually happened then?” you asked after a moment. 

“You talked Jason down. Scarecrow had me tied up and was about to inject me full of the same stuff, but then Jason shot the cuffs and I was able to take down Scarecrow. Nightwing had to sedate you so that we could bring you here. Robin and Nightwing are both going to be okay, they’re on bedrest for now.”

“And Jason?” you asked, searching Bruce’s eyes. 

“He left right after he took the shot. Oracle’s swept the entire area, and the best guess that we have is that he left Gotham,” Bruce said with a shrug. 

“Oh.” You took a moment to take it all in. You don’t remember when the fear toxin had hit you really. That whole situation had been stressful. But it seems like your memories of Jason shooting Batman were false. That was a huge relief. You were also furious at him. What was he thinking, working with Scarecrow? When you found him you were going to kill him. 

“So. What happens now?” you asked, grateful that Bruce had seemed to understand that you had needed a moment to internally freak out over what had just happened. 

Bruce sighed. “For now, we’re going to move you into a different apartment. One with better security. Not much else we can do now that you know so much. Someone will come and check on you regularly, but you can keep your job and schoolwork up. Of course, when Jason contacts you, you’ll use this to let us know.” He handed you a small metal box with just one button on it. You grabbed it hesitantly, running your fingers over the smooth edges. 

“Uh huh,” you hummed noncommittally, but took the box anyway. 

“Jason also always had a flair for ignoring orders.” There was a hint of laughter in Bruce’s eyes.

“Thank you for all this, Mr. Wayne. Really,” you said, trying to sound sincere. You may not give Jason to them, but you meant it when you said that you were grateful. You hoped that in time you could convince Jason to come back to his family willingly, but it was definitely going to be a long journey. You understood that he needed some time to clear his head after everything that had happened and you hoped that he could forgive you for essentially spilling all his secrets to the people that he was keeping then from. You knew that Jason would come back to you eventually, even if it took a while. You knew it because you needed him. And he needed you too.


	4. Switch (Dick Grayson)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You are 16 in Gotham, struggling to provide for your two younger siblings, Jason and Tim, when you take an inopportune nap and wake up as someone else. 
> 
> Soulmate AU- Sharing of thoughts and feelings through a link with your soulmate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi All,  
> I know that it said that the Damian chapter was next, but that one's turning out to be longer than I expected and I got this one finished sooner so I figured I'd post it.  
> It takes place in the Young Justice universe, but I'm taking quite a few liberties with the cannon and the timelines here, so bear with me. This concept is heavily based on the Gotham by Gaslight concept of the Robins, and also the story Proof by Westgate (Harkpad) (I'm not quite sure the proper etiquette for citing this). 
> 
> Enjoy!

You opened your eyes to find yourself in a dark, cramped space. Blinking a few times to make sure that you’re seeing everything correctly through a very disorienting haze, you vaguely realize that you’re on your hands and knees in a long metal tube… _what the fuck?_ The last thing that you remember was waiting on an order in the diner. You had just closed your eyes for a moment to get some well-deserved rest before the bell would inevitably wake you up to get back to work and now you were… somewhere. Okay. As your awareness slowly started to increase, you realized that what woke you up was not the ringing of the order-up bell, but the loud screech of some sort of alarm. It pierced your already pounding headache. You saw that there was light coming from in front of you. That seemed like a good way to go so that you could get out of this tube and try to figure out where you were. Good plan. 

You crawl over to the light, realizing along the way how groggy you are. You’d been feeling sick for a while now, so that was no surprise, but your headache had only gotten worse with your brief nap and your body felt thick, like you were moving through syrup. When you finally get to the light, you piece together that you’re in an air duct. It made sense with the metal walls around you and the grating that covered the hole where the light was coming from. It made sense that it was an air duct, but why the hell were you in an air duct? The pounding of your head was starting to lessen just enough for you to start to really panic. Looking out of the grating there was a hallway like nothing you’d ever seen before. It was completely metal with sliding doors lining its length, each one with a keypad on the side to unlock. There was no sign of anyone that you could see. 

Panic started to really set in, and you decided that you didn’t want to be in this duct anymore. You pushed your hands against it (since when were you wearing gloves?) in an attempt to dislodge the grating so that you could jump down to the hallway, but it didn’t budge. There was just enough room for you to maneuver yourself so that your feet were toward the grate and along the way you had to struggle with something on your back attached to your neck. Okay, so you were also wearing a cape of some sort? Looking down your whole outfit had been changed, but you decided that that could be something you thought about once you were in the hallway and you braced yourself against the duct walls and kicked as hard as you could against the grate. It fell outward and onto the metal floor with a loud crash that had you frozen for a couple of minutes, waiting for someone to have noticed. When no sound answered the crash, you eased yourself out of the duct and dropped the few feet to the floor, landing more gracelessly than you thought you would. 

You blinked a little bit in the harsh lighting of the hallway, finally able to see fully and then took stock of yourself. The first thing you noticed (that you really should have noticed before) was that there was something attached to your face. You pulled your gloved hands to your eyes, trying to pry it away, but it didn’t budge easily, clinging stubbornly around your eyes, though you could still see through it rather well. You gave up after a second and looked down to the rest of your outfit. Immediately your mouth dropped open in shock. You were wearing a pretty good approximation of the Robin costume. Complete with the cape and the belt and the combat boots and…

Your hands flew up to your chest. You felt the lean muscle under the kevlar and you weren’t exactly a double d cup size at 16, but the pronounced lack of anything there had you even more confused. You let your awareness of your body continue downward and…

This wasn’t your body. The realization shocks you more than waking up in a random air duct and you struggle to draw a breath through lungs that aren’t your own. This isn’t happening. You actually pinch yourself to wake up from this weird-ass dream that you were having, but nothing changes except a dull pain that shoots up your arm. Okay, so not a dream. What then? You had absolutely no idea what was going on, one moment you were safe and in the diner and you and then the next you were in an air duct dressed like Robin. The only possible explanation that you can come up with is the one that’s slowly creeping to the forefront of your disoriented brain. 

Soulmates. At around age 16 everyone starts getting little flashes of what their soulmate is thinking and feeling in high-stress situations. It’s supposed to just be something small, like feeling slightly angry when your soulmate is fighting with someone, or happy when they’re going through something good. The more compatible the two people, the more of the others’ thoughts and feelings can go through the bond. And if you’re right about this, you just switched places entirely with your soulmate. You’d never heard of anything remotely like that before, but it was the only thing that you thought could explain the sudden switch. Damn you and your super compatible soulmate, now what were you supposed to do?

You were interrupted out of your thoughts by the sound of footsteps coming your way, somehow louder than the alarms. You backup a little, trying to decide what to do about that. What could your soulmate have possibly been doing in an air vent dressed like Robin? Well, if he was hiding from them in there then sticking around out here in the open was probably a bad idea, you decided and then whirled around to run the opposite direction. There was no time to try and put the air vent back up to cover your tracks. 

A few steps into your run, you stumbled hard, just barely catching yourself from tumbling to the ground. This body was bigger than what you were used to. Bigger and a lot stronger. You ran away from the noises choosing your path at random for a few minutes and you weren’t even out of breath when you finally stopped in a dead end hallway that offered reasonable concealment. All of the hallways in this place looked the same. Thank God that you didn’t run into anyone else while you were running from whoever was coming, since that would have just defeated the purpose. But now what? You had no idea where you were. Hell, you had no idea who you were. You couldn’t be the real Robin, could you? The costume seemed pretty elaborate…

“No way,” you reassured yourself, surprised and not surprised that your voice came out completely alien to you. Just like everything else right now. It was all starting to overwhelm you and you tried to just focus on breathing as you leaned your back to the cold metal wall and slowly sank down. You tried to hold back your tears, mostly because you weren’t sure if they would get through the mask and you didn’t want your eyeballs to drown. You were about to give over to the wallowing completely when something on your wrist began to vibrate silently. With unsure, large hands, you pressed the flashing button on your left glove, not sure what else to do. After a brief moment a voice came through the glove. 

“.... Robin?” Oh God, it sounded like your own voice. Or at least, how your voice sounded in recordings. It couldn’t be, could it?

“Robin, listen. If I’m right, you just woke up in my body and you’re in a vent. Stay there,” your voice came through. 

“Umm, too late for that?” you talked quietly, hoping that it would go through. Okay, great. Looks like your soulmate woke up in your body and called you. Now he could explain _where the fuck you were_. 

“What? Where are you?” it was strange hearing your own voice sound panicked. 

“I don’t know. I got out of the vent and then someone was coming and then I ran,” you explained, trying your best to keep his voice even. You’re not sure you succeeded. There was a muffled curse on the other side of the line.

“Are you safe? Did you see anyone else?”

“No, there’s no one. And how am I supposed to know if I’m safe, what the hell are you doing here and why wouldn’t it be safe?” By now you were kind of just in denial. All signs had huge shining arrows pointing to the fact that your soulmate was Robin and he was out somewhere doing his vigilante schtick. 

“Okay I’m going to need you to listen to me very carefully. I think that we’re soulmates and we just switched bodies fully. I’m not sure how long this is going to last so I need you to do a few things for me. Think you can do that?” Your voice was coming out like he was trying to calm you down, but just the fact that it was your own damn voice was ensuring that you wouldn’t. 

“Do I really have a choice?” you muttered. 

“By now you’ve probably figured out that I’m Robin. My team and I are currently infiltrating a secret LexCorp base out in Alaska. Has anyone tried to contact you through the mind-link or earpiece yet?” 

“What’s a mind-link?”

“I’m going to take that as a no. Alright, no link. Radios are silent. Enemies all around you. Let’s see… Hit the button next to the one that you used to answer this call,” he instructed. 

You did and regretted it immediately when light flashed up in your face, nearly blinding you. What was the goal there? You spun your hand around so that you weren’t looking straight into the light and when your vision cleared you saw that the light was actually forming a holographic display. You oriented it to where you could see what was on the display and you saw that it was blueprints of what you hoped was this building. 

“What do you see?” The voice on the other end seemed impatient. 

“It’s a map,” you said back stupidly. 

“Great. Where are you? Find the little red dot.”

You looked. It was easy enough to spot. You squinted at the writing that was closest to the dot. “I’m just above where it says B11 on the map,” you informed him, not sure whether that would mean anything to him or not. He hummed contemplatively using your voice. 

“Do you see D13 on the map? It should be to the right.”

You spotted it. “Yeah?”

“Wall- Kid Flash should be right in that room. I’m going to need you to get over there without being spotted. Then just explain what’s happening to him and he’ll take care of you.” The voice sounded unsure. Your eyes quickly charted a route between the two points. 

“Why can’t I just radio for help from here?” you ask, remembering what he said about having an earpiece and then feeling something fit snugly in your ear. The voice over the line sighed.

“Because if Aqualad knows what’s happening then he’ll abort the whole mission. This is important, we’re gathering intel that could save lives. If you can just get to Kid Flash then we can still salvage the mission. If you don’t think you can, or you run into trouble, then you can press the button on your earpiece and call an SOS and the team will come find you.”

You chewed your(his?) lip trying to decide. The path seemed straightforward on paper. _Left, right, right, middle, left, right_. But what if you ran into someone on the way? But also, what about the potential lives that he said this mission was supposed to save? This had better be worth it. 

“I… think I can get to Kid Flash,” you said, though your new voice sounded uncertain. 

“Okay good. Remember, call if you run into any trouble. When you get there, can you do me another favor? Try not to let anyone else in on what’s happening. If you do it’ll get back to B and I’d rather not freak him out before we know what’s happening for sure.” The words came out in a rush, like he was feeling guilty about asking you. You were, however, all for the idea of not letting these strangers know that you were inhabiting the body of their teammate. 

“Sure.” You clicked the map button again and it disappeared. 

“Great, thanks,” Robin said, sounding relieved, like he thought that you were going to refuse. “KF will back you up, don’t worry. Just say that the migraine that you’ve been having is getting worse. I’ll stay on the line in case you need me, but silence is going to be our best bet.”

“No way! You’ve got to go finish my shift,” you said, suddenly remembering the other side of things that was your life. 

“I think that this is a little more important--”

“No! I can’t lose that job, you have to! If I’m going to sneak around Lex Luthor’s Alaska getaway then I think you can handle 2 and a half more hours of being a waitress,” you snapped. He paused, like he was surprised. 

“I don’t--”

“No deal. If you don’t go, then I’m radioing your team right now,” you said, completely serious. “If you ruin my life, then I’ll ruin yours.”

“Fine, geez. I’ll do it,” he relented. “Just be careful. Superboy should be drawing off most of the guards by now, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any.”

“Oh, and after work you need to go pick up my little brothers at the south edge of Robinson Park. Jason and Tim. They’ll be waiting for you there. Make sure they’re safe. And same deal, try not to let them know you’re not me. It probably won’t work, but I don’t even want to think about what Tim would do if he found out. We can figure it all out later,” you spoke quickly into the gauntlet, starting to panic a little bit at how long you’ve been away from work. You needed to keep this job, potential death or not. 

“Okay, okay. Just be careful. After the mission just tell KF you need to head back to Gotham and then you can come find me.” You heard an edge of worry in your own voice. 

“I will,” you said, trying to reassure him. “Now go back to work before Linda gets too mad at me.” You clicked on the same button again and the line went dead like you hoped. Great. Now you just had to navigate through a base full of guards as a vigilante without being seen. How hard could it be?

\---

Dick stared down at the phone in shock. Did she just hang up on him? This whole day was just littered with surprises, from getting the call that the team was going on a short notice mission to Alaska to waking up in the body of his soulmate. This was what he got for dozing off in the middle of a recon mission, but he’d spent the better part of an hour in that vent waiting for the signal and with the headache that he’d had all day it was way easier to just wait for the signal to rouse him than sit there alone in this thoughts. And now there was some girl wandering around a mission in his body that had no clue where she was or what she was doing. Just perfect. He wondered for a moment about what it would mean for him if she died in his body, but then quickly banished the thought. It was a low risk mission, and he had a low risk role in it, otherwise he would have immediately called Batman to go extract the team ASAP.

Ugh, Batman. Bruce was probably going to pull him from ANY missions once he found out that this had happened. Dick didn’t know how long this was going to last (hopefully not forever), and when it did end there wasn’t any guarantee that it wouldn’t happen again. There wasn’t anything that said that it _would_ happen again, either, but Batman would never see it that way. For now, the less everyone knew the better until Dick could figure out a few things for certain. 

But back to the matter at hand. He had woken up in the back room of a small cafe, wearing what he assumed was a waitress uniform complete with an apron and clipboard and everything, but the body had been all wrong and… He stopped thinking about it too hard. Someone had been trying to get his attention by calling out an unfamiliar name and in a rush he had told them that he’d be right back and dashed out of the first door that he saw. His voice was distinctly not his own. 

The door had opened up to a small street in front of the cafe and he took a moment to take stock of what was happening. If he had woken up in her body, then it was pretty reasonable to assume that the opposite was holding true, which was unfortunate considering that he had been in an enemy base a few moments ago. At least he could tell that he was in Gotham based on the buildings in the distance. It was nighttime and there were few people out. He spotted a payphone on the corner and hurried over to it. He had called his emergency line and had what turned out to be a rather frustrating conversation with… himself. Hearing his voice over the line sounding disoriented and scared had been unnerving to say the least. It brought him to where he was now, standing in the booth, holding the dead phone and wondering what had just happened.

With unsure hands (how were they so small?) he placed the phone back into the receiver and walked back toward the diner. She had been adamant that he go back and finish her shift for her. As much as he really didn’t want to do that, fair was fair, right? If he was asking her to complete his mission, he could do hers too. How hard could it be to play waitress for the night? He was Robin, he could handle this. 

\---

You crept through the hallways of the base, repeating the directions that you had seen over and over again in your mind so that you wouldn’t forget and take a wrong turn. All of the hallways looked eerily the same to you in this place and it was unsettling how quiet everything was. Aside from the footsteps earlier, you had yet to hear a sound other than the blaring alarm and the ones that you made yourself. Whoever that had been had obviously missed the vent that you had left in the hallway or you were sure that there would have been someone looking for you. Lucky. 

Continuing down the hallway you were on the third to last turn before you would get to where Robin had indicated that Kid Flash was when your luck ran out. You turned the corner and came face to face with two armed guards. There was an almost comical moment where the three of you just stood and stared at each other, but then the two of them seemed to come to their senses and drew their weapons, pointing them at you. 

“Halt!” one of them commanded in typical guard fashion. 

Your body seemed to move on instinct as the guns pointed at you and you danced back around the corner. Your hand flew to your belt and grabbed something off of it. You looked down to see something sharp and circular in your hand. You didn’t have time to ponder your actions as the two men came around the corner after you, firing. You panicked and let instinct take over again, which made you throw the disk at one of them and then charge straight toward the other. Trusting your body to do what it would, you planted your feet and crashed your fist into the closest guy's face and were a bit surprised when he fell limp immediately. You had never been that strong. The other guy seemed to have recovered from the thrown disk (which you still weren’t sure what it had done exactly) and you heard a distinct gunshot as you turned to face him. There was a stinging pain on your side, but your body was already moving into a perfectly practiced kick that sent the gun in his hands flying down the hallway. You made eye contact with the man for just a moment before he turned and ran off, leaving his buddy groaning on the floor. 

Jogging to get down the last couple of turns, you noticed that while your mind was near-hysterical over what had just happened, your body didn’t feel any different than it had before. You guess that you should really be surprised that Robin’s body would handle adrenaline well, but the conflicting signals were definitely confusing. 

You were one turn away from safety when you ran into someone else again. More literally this time. You felt the collision push all of the air out of your lungs as you fell backward, not able to catch yourself. Whoever it was must’ve been going in a full sprint when they had turned the corner. You looked up, fully expecting to be looking down the barrel of another gun. Instead you just saw a bunch of yellow. 

“Rob!? What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in position for extraction. Miss M said that you dropped from the mind link and Aqualad sent me to go check on you, is everything okay?” The voice was talking almost too fast for you to understand as the boy reached down and pulled you to your feet. This was probably Kid Flash, based on the symbol across his chest. 

“I’m not Robin,” you replied, wanting to get right to the point. He opened his mouth in confusion and you added, “I’m his soulmate. We switched bodies. He told me to go find you and to not tell the team about this.”

If it was possible, those green eyes got even wider in surprise. There was a moment of silence where he looked skeptical, like you were going to add ‘Just kidding’ and laugh at him, but you just stood and stared back, not really knowing what else to do. 

“Alright. Okay. Weird,” Kid Flash finally relented and then grabbed your hand and pulled you back the way he had come from. It struck you that he was taking this remarkably well, but then again he’d probably seen weirder things. You let yourself be led to the only open door that you had seen the whole time you’d been there. D13. It was a chemistry lab and he closed the door behind you before letting go and walking over to one of the computers. 

“I’m still downloading the files. I already let the team know that you’re with me for the rest of the mission. After this we can go back and clear the exit for them and then we’re home free,” he explained, typing a few different commands on the computer. You nodded mutely, not really sure what to say to that. 

“How’d you talk to Rob?” he asked over his shoulder, throwing you a calculating glance. 

“He called me on my wrist computer thing. Don’t ask me,” you answered, indicating the glove. Kid Flash snorted, amused. 

“What’s your name?”

“What’s yours?” you shot back, giving him a glare that you weren’t sure showed through the mask you were wearing.

“Fair enough,” he said, focusing back on the screen. “Okay, that’s it. Let’s go. Follow me closely. I don’t want my best friend’s hot bod to get shredded on my watch.”

You rolled your eyes at the comment, but followed in step right behind him as he ran out the door, obviously slowing himself down so that you could keep up on your unsure feet. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, turning down a couple of hallways and then he came up to a larger door with a small podium to the right. 

“Give me your arm,” he said casually, not waiting for your approval before grabbing your left arm and hitting a button so that the display came up. He pulled a cord out of somewhere on your wrist and plugged that into a port on the podium. The display started taking in data and Kid Flash reached around you and hit a few keys on the keyboard that had materialized and then tapped a few things on the display. You just sat there and stared, barely taking any of it in. Really, you just wanted to be done so that you could leave. A sense of frustration was growing over you, and it took you a moment to realize that it must be your soulmate’s. You pushed it down as far as you could since that was the last thing that you wanted to deal with right now. 

“There. All the doors should be open. You really lucked out, this was one of the easiest missions that we’ve ever been on. You should be glad you didn’t possess Robin last week in Bialya. That was one crazy mission. How do you feel about alligators?” He gave you a lopsided smile and then reached up to pull his goggles down over his eyes. “Now watch and learn as I single-handedly beat all the bad guys and save my best friend’s soulmate,” he said cockily, then hit one more button on the display. The doors in front of you began to slowly open and once there was just enough of a gap for him to squeeze through, there was a puff of air and he vanished. 

You crept to the side, not wanting to be standing in the middle of the doorway when it opened, but couldn’t resist peeking out when you had the chance. Kid Flash was standing in the middle of the room, holding an armful of weapons, ignoring the fact that there were about ten men lying on the ground around him, groaning or knocked out. You cautiously walked into the room and looked around as he threw the weapons on the floor. It was an aircraft hangar with one of the walls fully open, like it was in a cave. You shivered a little in the cold air. 

Kid Flash gave a deep bow, but your attention was caught by something moving to his right. One of the men that wasn’t knocked out had pulled out a small handgun from somewhere and was aiming it at the superhero. Panic shot through you and before you could even think, your hand was doing that instinctive thing again, pulling out a disk and throwing it with a flick of your wrist. It embedded itself into the man’s upper arm and then promptly electrocuted him. The gun clattered to the floor. 

Suddenly Kid Flash was right in front of you. 

“Whoa, nice throw. How’d you do that?” he asked, sounding impressed. 

“Instinct?” you said, not really having a better answer for him. 

“I’ll remember to thank Robin for throwing about a billion of those in training when I see him,” he teased. “Okay so the team is going to meet us here. If Robin doesn’t want them to know anything you’re gonna have to play up the sick angle. Rob was feeling out of it this morning, headache. Don’t say too much or they’ll figure it out. Just let me do the talking.”

“Do you ever not do the talking?” you muttered, causing him to laugh. 

“See, you’ve got your Robin impression down already.”

“Robin, KF! Into the bioship, now! We’re about to have company,” a voice rang out in command. You whirled around to see that another door into the hangar had opened and three more people came running toward you. You vaguely recognized the speaker as Aqualad. Kid Flash grabbed you by the arm again and dragged you over to-- wait when had that gotten there? Where a second ago there had been clear space, a ship had materialized. It was black and red and there was a hatch down that Kid Flash was leading you to. You were too shocked to put up resistance as he pushed you up the ramp and then into one of the chairs, giving you a look that said, _remember what I told you_. 

A few seconds later, the rest of the team was in the ship as well and you couldn’t help but turn around and stare at them a little. There was Aqualad, a girl in green that you hadn’t seen before, and a large boy wearing a black t-shirt with the Superman symbol on it. As you looked, a green-skinned girl seemed to materialize out of thin air, just like the ship. You had to stop yourself from jumping in surprise at that. 

“Robin, are you okay? Miss Martian informed me that you dropped off the link part way through the mission,” Aqualad asked, his voice even and calming. You shared a quick glance with Kid Flash, then answered. 

“It must be the headache. It’s been getting worse.” You tried your best to keep your voice even, though you were never the best liar. 

“Yeah, you’ve been seeming pretty out of it, Rob,” Kid Flash agreed easily. 

“I see. When we arrive you should go to the med bay and get yourself looked at,” Aqualad suggested as the ship began to rise and head out of the cave. 

“Will do,” you replied, crossing your fingers and hoping that that was the right answer. The team all just shot you a look, but didn’t comment. Instead, they started their mission reports, with Kid Flash giving yours for you, which you were grateful for. 

“You should get some rest, Rob,” Kid Flash said to you after everyone was done with the reports. “It’ll be a long flight.”

“Yeah,” you said and then rested your head back on the chair. Maybe if you got some sleep you’d wake up from this nightmare back in your own body. 

\---

Dick couldn’t wait to get the apron off at the end of the shift. That had been two and a half hours that he never wanted to relive ever again. When he had gone back into the cafe, he received an angry lecture from Linda, the manager, about how he had run off in the middle of his shift and then she had immediately shoved a tray full of plates at him. The only thing that had saved him from toppling them all on the floor was that apparently this body was used to it and used muscle memory to balance it. She had told him to take the food to table seven, which would have been easy enough if he had known where table seven was. He had chosen his best guess (the cafe wasn’t all that big) and then when they informed him that that wasn’t their food he tried again until he found the correct table. Going from there, he could reasonably figure out the table numbers and he basically just continued doing what he intuitively knew that a waitress did, wincing internally every time his voice came out and it wasn’t his own. 

The worst part was the customers. They ranged from civil to downright rude and considering the time of night that it was, it wasn’t really surprising in Gotham that he was sure that he had served at least three known gang members. One particularly drunk man that came in even leaned over to slap Dick’s ass as he was walking by and he had to do a full count to ten to stop himself from breaking the man’s wrist. All in all, he wasn’t sure how on Earth his soulmate tolerated this job. Or even how she fit it in. From the brief look in the mirror that he had gotten she was around his age which meant that she probably had school in the morning and then still worked the night shift. 

He was reasonably sure about that because of how exhausted he had felt this whole time, too. He was light-headed and felt weak all over and his stomach was twisting into knots of pain. On top of everything, he still hadn’t managed to shake the headache that he had had when he was in his own body. Through it all, Linda seemed to be watching him like a hawk, reminding him to smile. He would take going on a mission to a night like this any day and when Linda told him that the shift was up, he almost cried in relief. 

After hanging up his apron next to a couple of others, he winced as he saw Linda heading toward him. She shoved a thin roll of bills at him.

“Here’s tonight’s pay. I subtracted the appropriate amount for your little unsupervised break in the middle and for somehow forgetting which table you were at. Do better tomorrow, Y/N.” She left. 

Dick looked at the bills in his hand. For what he had deduced was a five hour shift he had only gotten $35? That wasn’t even minimum wage in Gotham. Not to mention Linda had been taking the tips left at the tables. He had assumed that she would give them to him at the end of the night, but it looked like he had no such luck. Not knowing any better, he shoved the bills into his pocket and turned to leave out the back. 

“Wait, Y/N, aren’t you forgetting a few things?” a voice called, and Dick turned back to see Jack, the cook, waving at him. Jack had been nice to him during the shift. Dick didn’t want to say too much to reveal that he wasn’t actually Y/N, but after Linda had yelled at him, Jack had made sure that he was okay and had even snuck him some fries when Linda wasn’t looking. 

Now he was holding out a backpack and two to-go containers out and so Dick walked back over to him, accepting what was probably Y/N’s stuff. 

“Geez, you should probably get some rest if you’re forgetting this. You look dead on your feet, girl. I’m sure those two boys of yours wouldn’t appreciate it if you spaced and left dinner,” Jack said, looking over at Dick, concerned. Dick was more concerned about the phrasing of that. That wasn’t typically how people referred to brothers. 

“Thanks, Jack. Yeah, I’ll get some rest,” Dick said, slinging the backpack over his shoulder and then finally getting to walk out into the night air. The food in his hands served as a reminder that he now had to go meet his soulmate’s brothers at Robinson Park. It took a second to establish where he was, but he knew every inch of Gotham by now and quickly oriented himself to walk briskly down the streets toward the park. The whole time he was thinking that if he were Robin right now he would definitely swoop down from the roof to lecture a young girl walking down these streets alone at this hour, but for now there was nothing that he could do but put his head down and continue. The few people that he passed on the way did likewise, to his relief. It wasn’t helping that a healthy amount of adrenaline and panic had been coming through his new soulmate link all night. It made him jumpy, even though he knew he wasn’t the one feeling that. 

He approached the edge of the park, realizing that Y/N’s instructions had been a little bit vague. Seeing no one at a first glance, he decided to walk along the edge of the park and look for the two boys, who, again, shouldn’t be anywhere near this dangerous area alone in the dark. He quickly came up to a bench under one of the few working lights and put down the food in favor of taking off the backpack, intending to dig around until he found her phone so that he could call them instead of wandering around searching. He almost didn’t see the two small figures melt out of the darkness. 

“You’re early,” the larger of the two stated, sounding reluctant through his thick Gotham accent. 

“You brought food!” the second one said, happiness obvious in his voice. 

The lamp illuminated the two boys and Dick took a moment to look them over for any information that he could. They were both scrawny, all elbows and knees and looked almost too thin. The larger one was just below his height, which was shorter than he was used to, and had dark black hair above startling green eyes. He had his face tilted slightly away, but that didn’t completely hide the blossoming bruise that covered his right side. His eyes met Dick’s like a challenge, but Dick could see behind that there was guilt. From the way he was standing that wasn’t his only injury. Dick would place him at around 11-12 years old. The younger one couldn’t be more than 9, but the sharpness of his ice-blue eyes made him seem older. He also had black hair and was looking longingly at the boxes on the bench. The state of their clothes matched his own worn down outfit. 

“Yeah, Jack gave me some extras, take them,” Dick said cautiously, trying to play the part of someone that he didn’t know. The little one didn’t even hesitate, plopping down on the bench with his backpack and opening up one of the containers to reveal cooling pancakes and eggs. The other one just stared at him, as if expecting something. 

“What happened to you?” Dick asked, raising an eyebrow at him and giving him the disapproving look that he obviously expected. 

“A few of us were just roughing around. It ain’t no deal,” the kid said, trying to act tough. 

“ _I_ heard that Jason was out with Jimmy jacking tires again,” what had to now be Tim said through a mouthful of pancake. Jason threw him a dirty glare. 

“No one asked you, twerp,” Jason bit back hotly.

“Y/N _told_ you not to go out with them again. And it _looks_ like you didn’t even get anything before you got caught,” Tim said, intelligent eyes roaming over Jason’s face. 

“You shut your mouth, brat, or I’ll make you _look_ ten times worse,” Jason said and lunged for Tim, but Dick caught him with an arm around his middle. With a lot less strength than he was used to, Dick hauled the kid away from the other and held him at arm’s length by the shoulders. 

“Don’t listen to Timmy, Y/N, he’s full of shit. Here,” Jason said and then shoved his hand in his pocket, coming out with a handful of small bills. 

“So where’d you get that?” Dick sighed, though from the conversation it was obvious where it had come from. 

“Found it,” Jason said, glaring at him as though daring him to challenge. “ And lucky I did. We need it if we’re going over to the Willows tonight, like you said.”

“You’re _lucky_ that you’re not spending the night in a cell,” Dick said, a little bit of Robin seeping into the unfamiliar voice. 

“That rich asshole isn’t even going to care about a few tires,” Jason said, shrugging Dick’s hands off of him. “We needed that cash way more. I’m just helping you out since that bitch at the diner doesn’t pay you what you’re worth.”

Dick sighed, knowing that in Gotham this was a very slippery slope toward becoming one of the thugs that Robin had to take down and tie up on the wrong end of a murder scene. He wanted to say so, but logically he knew that the more he talked, the more likely that it would be discovered that he wasn’t who they thought he was and she had asked him to keep it quiet if possible. 

“Let’s just eat,” Dick said, joining Tim on the bench and opening up the second box to find more breakfast food in there. He handed it toward Jason, who was looking a bit surprised, but followed and took the box. 

“What about you?” Jason asked. 

“I’m fine,” Dick lied, eyeing the way the boys’ clothes hung off their too-thin bodies. “Jack gave me some fries during my shift.” With the smell of food so close, Dick correctly identified the pain in his stomach as hunger pains, but he pushed them aside. 

“No. I’m not eating a bite until you do,” Jason said, stubbornly. It was clear to Dick from the kid’s reaction that his soulmate had pulled this one before.

“Me either.” Dick looked up to see that Tim had stopped eating and was crossing his arms, glaring over at Dick in a show of solidarity with his brother. It was rather adorable. 

“Fine,” Dick relented, pulling the food over so that they could both get to it and pull out a piece of toast. Jason kept an eye on him and made sure that they ate the food in equal parts for the rest of the meal. Dick took the relative silence of the meal to try and put together what he was finding out about his soulmate and their situation. She was living in Gotham, taking care of herself and her two brothers alone by the looks of it. But they really couldn’t be her brothers with how different they looked. Jason and his golden-tan skin and Tim’s pale complexion didn’t exactly hold up with how she herself looked. Jason also had that true-bred Gotham drawl, while Tim’s accent seemed closer to Bruce’s. He filed away this information in case it became relevant. 

From the way that they both seemed extremely content to be sitting in Robinson Park eating dinner at what had to be past midnight, Dick could guess that they were living on the streets and not even going back to some sort of home or shelter. It wasn’t exactly an uncommon occurrence in Gotham, but whenever he and Bruce saw kids in this situation on patrol, they always stopped and made sure that they went to the proper authorities. Indeed, this spot on the bench was properly hidden from any patrol cars that came this way, and it seemed like both boys were on alert for any visitors, Jason especially. They didn’t want to be found. 

Dick sighed. He didn’t know what he had been expecting when it came to his soulmate, but it certainly wasn’t this. The detective side of him wanted to start asking detailed questions and pull information out of the boys until he had a complete picture of the situation, but he was still trying to respect her wish of secrecy. Even now, Tim was shooting him suspicious glances as the silence stretched out. Dick was about to call him out on it when the small boy launched into an in-depth explanation about the different types of lightsaber fighting styles. Jason didn’t look like this was unusual so Dick just sat back and let the boy fill the silence while they ate. 

When they were done, Jason announced that they should get going and Dick let the two boys take the lead, since he had no idea where they were going and he was trying to not let them know that. They headed over toward the docks, which had Dick on full alert for trouble, but the path that Jason was picking was admittedly a good one. They really knew their way around Gotham in the dark, sticking to all the safest spots that had the most light. Regardless, Dick was on edge, expecting them to get attacked at every corner and not sure how much of that was him and how much was the anxiety coming from his soulmate. He almost missed the strange glances that Tim kept throwing his way. His hand kept twitching out like he was stopping himself from reaching out, but he didn’t say anything so Dick decided to leave it alone. 

“Did you get anything tonight, Timmy?” Jason asked eventually, after the silence had stretched too long. He also threw Dick a strange glance. 

“Yes!” Tim said, sounding extremely proud of himself. “Over in Oldtown. I swear there was a black blur. I had to have gotten it on film this time. Can we go develop the film tomorrow, Y/N? Please?” he begged. Dick regretted looking down at him only to see the biggest pair of puppy eyes that he had ever seen. He had to give it to his soulmate, this kid was cute. 

“Maybe,” Dick shrugged, not really knowing what else to say. Tim didn’t look like his answer was unexpected. 

“A blur doesn’t count as anything, Tim-tam. It could’ve just been a bird. Or maybe Man-Bat. I’ve heard that when he gets the scent of a kid he hunts them down and grabs them out of their beds,” Jason said nastily. 

“That’s not true! Everyone knows that Dr. Langstrom hasn’t been transformed since April when Batman put him back in Arkham,” Tim said, very confidently.

“You’re no fun,” Jason muttered, but kept going. 

“I’m close to getting a good shot, though. This is the third time this week that I just missed it,” Tim said, excitement bubbling through his voice. 

_Missed what?_ Dick wanted to ask, but it was clear that Y/N and Jason were expected to know what he was talking about. 

“I can’t believe you lecture me about my shit when Timmy is always out there doing whatever the fuck he does,” Jason complained. 

“Language,” Dick said, automatically channeling Alfred. Both boys seemed surprised when the word slipped out. 

“Since when do you care about language?” Jason asked, his eyes narrowing. 

“We’re here!” Tim interrupted, much to Dick’s relief. Dick looked up to the warehouse that they had stopped in front of, barely recognizing it since it wasn’t a popular villain hideout. The reason for that was quickly revealed when he quickly followed Tim through a boarded up doorway, squeezing through the gap. The inside was occupied, about a couple dozen kids lined the walls, all glaring at each other suspiciously while a couple of adults wandered around stopping at each of the groups. It looked like some sort of shelter for wayward children. Dick had to hurry to keep Tim close as he walked over to an unoccupied spot along the wall and plopped down. Jason followed behind, though Dick could almost feel the heat of his stare on his back. 

“Yes! This is a great spot. You should get off work early all the time, Y/N,” Tim said, getting his backpack open and pulling out a battered notebook and an old camera. 

Dick crouched next to him and took off his own backpack. It looked like this was where they were going to spend the night. Not the worst place that he’d had to sleep in all his time as Robin, but he couldn’t wait for when he could finally have a talk with his soulmate. A long talk. Mostly concerning minors and child protective services. 

“Alright you three, pay up.” the voice startled Dick and he looked up to see two of the adults had made their way around the room to them. Both Jason and Tim looked over at him expectantly and Dick froze for a moment, taking in the fact that the men were definitely goons for Two-face and armed. Dick dug through his pocket and pulled out the wad of bills that he had between getting paid at the diner and from Jason. One of the thugs immediately snatched them up and then looked up at the three of them. 

“This a joke?” he asked, not sounding amused. 

“Give her a moment, the rest is in the backpack,” Jason said angrily, right at Dick’s back. Dick leaned over and grabbed the bag, rifling through it to look for more cash since he had no idea where she would have kept it. 

“You know we don’t give no free spots. You don’t got the cash, you got to walk,” the thug said to Dick, taking a puff of the cigarette in his hands. “Y’know, sweetcheeks, we could make some sort of other deal. You can make some good money walkin’ the streets ‘round here. I can introduce you, if you want. For a price”

Dick looked up and a shiver went down his spine at the way the goon was looking him down. Rage on behalf of his soulmate was blossoming in his mind.

“Go to hell!” Jason spat from behind Dick, and the thug tore his eyes away from Dick to settle on the kid. 

“Jason here’s getting to be old enough to join up. I heard you been out with Riley’s kids, it ain’t no different. You come with us and we can get your sis and the kid a real nice spot out of this shithole. What’cha say?”

Dick dug furiously through the backpack, but he didn’t see any other money. He cursed his soulmate for not mentioning that maybe he would need to pay a murderous landlord. Behind him Jason was silent, like he was thinking about it. 

“Absolutely not,” Dick said, and was surprised by how much this body’s voice could sound like Bruce. 

“That so? What a shame. I was hoping we could work this out, but if you don’t got the cash then we got to make an example out of ya,” the thug said, not really sounding sorry at all. Dick looked up from where he was crouched in time to see the man draw the gun and flick the safety off. “Now which one?” The gun waved between the three of them before settling on Tim. 

Blind rage flashed through Dick as a protective instinct that he didn’t know he had rose to the forefront of his mind. Without thinking, he leapt toward the man, knocking his elbow aside and striking out in a disarming technique that he knew he’d done about a billion times with Bruce and in the field. Unfortunately, he overestimated the amount of strength that he had in this new body and the gun didn’t clatter to the floor like usual. What happened instead was that the man reared his hand back to pistol whip him, though he didn’t get that far as Jason crashed into him, sending them both to the floor. 

The other thug, who had been silent until now, yelled out in rage and went to grab his own weapon, but Dick had recovered enough to find his center and properly account for the difference in strength as he grabbed the guy and threw him over his shoulder, sending him to the floor with a dull thud. Then he turned back to Jason, who was struggling to get control of the gun with both hands as the man had a hand firmly in his hair, yanking Jason away. He tried to aim again, but this time Dick was successful in disarming him with several nerve strikes to his body. 

There was a moment of silence where every eye in the warehouse was on them, but then Dick slung the backpack over his shoulder and grabbed Tim by the arm and was dragging him toward the exit of the warehouse, with Jason following close behind. There were voices yelling after them when they got out into the cold night air and they all three broke into a run until Tim had to stop, gasping for breath. 

“What the hell was that?” Jason asked after a second where they all caught their breath. His soulmate wasn’t the long distance sprinter that he was.

“What was what?” Dick asked innocently. 

“That. You and those ninja skills that you’ve been hiding. You just took out that guy like--”

“You’re not, Y/N, are you?” Tim’s little voice asked, interrupting Jason’s excited rant. 

There was a moment of silence. 

“No, I’m not,” Dick admitted. 

“Knew it,” Tim murmured to himself. 

“Okay, what? Then who the hell are you?” Jason asked, obviously shocked and a little angry. 

“I’m her soulmate. We switched during her shift tonight. She didn’t want me to tell you,” Dick said, trying to calm the angry kid down. 

“Why didn’t she want us to know?” Tim asked, curious. 

“I don’t know. But we’re going to go find out. Come with me,” Dick said, getting his bearings after their mad dash and then choosing the right direction. He took off in long strides and Jason and Tim followed after a moment, probably not knowing what else to do. 

“Where are we going?” Jason asked. 

Dick ignored him, instead focusing on what he was going to do when he got to his destination. It might take a while, but he was confident that he could make it work. It only took a few moments to get to the nearest zeta location, the phone booth in Old Gotham, and he stopped in front of it. 

“What are we doing here, imposter?” Jason demanded this time when Dick stopped. He shot Jason a look, but then stepped into the phonebooth. 

“Override, 250H, Robin, B01,” he announced. The familiar scanner came out and predictably denied him access. 

“Protocol Bat Red J7/250H,” he said, remembering the emergency contingencies that Batman had in place. There were so many. A panel on the phone booth swung open and he promptly began to rewire the system into the right sequence. The two boys behind him were just staring at him with their mouths open. 

“This will just take a second and then we can use this to get to Mount Justice where we can meet up with Y/N,” Dick said as he worked. “She should be getting back there soon.”

“Cool!” Tim said, on his tippy toes trying his best to look over Dick’s shoulder as he worked. 

“Why should we trust you?” Jason said, crossing his arms stubbornly. 

“Because that’s where I’m going so if you want to stick with me you’ll shut your mouth and let me work,” Dick answered easily. Jason scoffed, but was silent.

\---

You opened your eyes when you felt the ship start to descend. The flight had been longer than you had expected, and it hit you that you had absolutely no idea where you were now. The current (and only) plan was that you would eventually get to go back to Gotham and then you could try to sneak off to go meet with your soulmate and try to figure out what to do next. Looking out the window in front of the ship, you definitely weren’t in Gotham. The ship was circling around a small town that you couldn’t place before diving into the mountain next to the beach. You quickly grabbed the bottom of your seat, expecting the ship to crash into the side of the mountain, but at the last second a large door that you hadn’t seen before opened and the ship smoothly flew in and landed. You threw a look at Kid Flash and saw that he was silently laughing at you. Well, at least you were awake now. 

The same ramp opened in the ship and everyone was standing up to leave. You did the same and followed Kid Flash into another hangar, not entirely unlike the one that you just left. Everyone seemed to relax when they got off the ship and were talking among themselves. The girl in green approached Kid Flash and started talking. From the way that they were standing you could infer that they were close. 

“Dick, I believe it best you head to the medical bay,” Aqualad said. At the sound of the name, Kid Flash’s head snapped over and he broke off conversation with the girl to come over. 

“Yeah, Rob, I’ll take you over there right now,” he said, making everyone look over from how awkwardly panicked he sounded. He then grabbed both of your shoulders from behind and started shoving you away from the rest of the team. They all threw you two suspicious glances. 

“Dick?” you muttered over to him, very amused. 

“He just doesn’t like you. You know, like ‘stop being such a dick?’ Don’t take it personally,” Wally fumbled with the words and you couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Don’t worry, I already--” you started, but were interrupted by one of the circular tubes starting to glow. Everyone looked over, confused as three shadows came into view one after another. When the light died down, you first noticed that everyone except you and Kid Flash had taken up fighting stances. Then you noticed that it was you who had come through the light. Seeing yourself standing in front of you was weird, to say the least, and you watched as your own eyes flickered over the gatherers superheroes and landed on you. He seemed just as weirded out. Following behind you and looking very amazed were your two brothers. Fuck. 

“Who are you and how did you get into the cave?” Aqualad demanded, his weapons drawn. 

“What the heck are you doing here?” you called, extracting yourself from Kid Flash’s hold and walking toward the new arrivals. Your eyes flashed over your brothers, making sure that they were both unharmed. There was a flutter of panic when you saw the state that Jason was in. 

“Robin, do you know these kids?” Aqualad asked, eyes flicking over to you. 

“I’m not Robin,” you muttered, though loud enough that they could all probably hear you. Everyone was staring in shock. 

“What do you mean, you’re not Robin?” green girl asked, looking between the two of you. 

In a blink, Kid Flash was standing at her side, pushing the bow that she had drawn down. “There’s been a little soulmate situation here. They switched bodies. Uh, surprise!” 

By this time you had made your way up to the newcomers and were glaring at Dick, who was glaring back. Tim and Jason were looking between the two of you, both looking hilariously shocked. 

“Why was I not informed of this development?” Aqualad asked, eyes narrowed.

“I didn’t want to jeopardize the mission,” Dick called, using your voice, breaking his glaring contest with you. 

“Whoa,” Tim said, cautiously approaching you. “Y/N?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” you said reluctantly, knowing what was going to happen next. Tim rushed over to you and tugged your hand down so that you crouched down to be on his level. His little hands came up and attached themselves to your face, running them along the mask across your eyes in wonder. Jason approached more slowly, tension in his body from being in the room with strangers. 

“What did you get into _this time_ , Jason?” you asked, exasperation clear in your tone. 

“Nothing compared to what you’re in right now,” he answered snottily. 

“When I get back in my body we are going to have a _talk_ ,” you said, anger dripping out of your voice. 

“You’re more intimidating in your other body anyway,” Jason said back, rolling his eyes. You had to stop yourself from laughing. “Tim, that’s probably not a toy,” you said, coming back to the youngest, who had been going through your utility belt and had pulled out one of the disks. You took it from him and put it back where it had come from. He whined in disappointment, but that quickly melted back into excitement. 

“Y/N, this is so cool. Your soulmate is _Robin_. The _superhero_. That means that your soulmate is _Dick Grayson_!” Tim answered, not able to keep his excited voice quiet. A ripple of shock went through the room.

“ _Timothy!_ ” you admonished and he clapped his hand around his mouth, like he had just realized what he had said. 

“How does he know that?” your voice asked as Dick came over to where you were. The shock on your own face and coming through the link almost made you laugh. The attention of the entire room was suddenly focused on Tim. He seemed to realize it and buried himself into the front of your uniform. You looked down at him, taking pity on the boy. 

“He was ummm,” how were you supposed to explain this delicately? “He was there at the circus the night that… _that_ night.” You felt Dick’s shock morph to dread. He knew what you were talking about. You’d helped Tim through enough nightmares to know how horrifying of an event that must’ve been. “He met you before the show. You apparently said that you were going to dedicate a triple flip to him or something.”

Tim mumbled a correction up to you from his place clinging to your chest. 

“Sorry, a _quadruple somersault_ , my bad,” you corrected yourself. “Anyway, then a little while later he saw Robin do one on the TV and apparently only a Grayson could do that kind of move,” you explained. “And then from there it’s pretty obvious that Bruce Wayne has to be Batman.”

“Seems like kind of a stretch,” the boy with the Superman symbol said, crossing his arms. 

“He’s observant,” you said with a shrug. Dick was looking back at you, with his face now carefully blank. 

“I am!” Tim piped up, apparently done being shy. “I knew that it wasn’t you before we even got to the Willows. And then especially when you saved us by taking out those guys.”

“What guys?” you asked, sharply. You could always rely on Tim to have a lot of information ready to share. 

“I got into it with those two-face goons when one _pointed a gun_ at Tim,” Dick admitted. You wanted to scream. 

“I _told_ you not to ruin my life,” you grumbled. “I literally got shot and you couldn’t last 4 hours on the streets. What kind of superhero are you?”

“Wait, you got _shot_? When? Why didn’t you say anything,” Wally put in, sounding distressed. 

“Oh, right,” you said, as though suddenly shocked by your own words. You put a gloved hand to the back of your side and winced when you felt the sting. When your hand came back it was lightly wet. “I forgot.” Dick was immediately by your side, lifting the cape so that he could get a good look at the wound. There was worry on his/your face. 

“How did you just _forget_ getting shot?” green girl asked, incredulous. 

“To be honest, it wasn’t the most pressing issue at the moment,” you said back sarcastically, indicating your body. “It was before I found Kid Flash.”

“It’s just a scratch. Shouldn’t even need stitches,” Dick declared, looking relieved momentarily and then his face fell into disapproval. “You got lucky. You were _supposed_ to call for help if you ran into any trouble.”

“You were _supposed_ to stay put for one night so that I could come find you. Now we’re gonna have Two-Face’s entire gang searching us out,” you shot back, hoping that your exasperation covered the fear that had come into your chest as you realized that the words were true. 

“Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t funding a mass murderer,” Dick replied, matching your exasperated tone. “Ever heard of Gotham child services? I hear they don’t try to shoot you if you don’t have any money”

“Wow! I never thought about calling _child services_. You get a _gold star_ ,” you bit out, aware that you and Dick were now having a full-blown argument in front of everyone. The anger that you were both feeling was getting amplified through the link. At the moment, though, you didn’t care. Fear of Two-Face was immediately replaced by the stronger fear that your soulmate was going to inform the authorities about you and that you’d be pulled back into the system. “We can’t go to child services. The first thing they’ll do is separate us.”

“Probably better than getting shot.”

“I wouldn’t expect _you_ to understand.” You pulled your focus off of him to note that you and Dick were standing almost chest to chest, you had to look down to see your own face that was looking slightly up. Jason and Tim were behind you, and you could almost feel the tension in Jason from here. It was nice to know that he always had your back, but all of Dick’s friends behind him were similarly wound, like they all expected it to come to blows. That might have been because of the fighting stance that your body had naturally fallen into. All aggression. A wave of exhaustion fell over you as you forced your body to relax, scrubbing a hand over your face as you took a step back. “Maybe we should do this somewhere else,” you suggested, eying the audience. 

That seemed to ease a lot of the tension in the room and everyone started to relax. You turned around to look your brothers over again. 

“Are you two sure you’re alright?” you asked, needing to be sure. 

“Yeah we’re fine. If you need me to knock some sense into your soulmate, I’m sure I can find a way,” Jason said, trying to crack his knuckles menacingly. 

“You can’t pick a fight with Robin, you’ll lose,” Tim said, 100% confident. You noticed in the back of your mind that Robin had also turned and was talking in hushed voices with his team. You didn’t bother trying to hear what was said, though. 

“You’d better hope not. Now they know that we know about them. They’re probably discussing the best way to off us so we don’t talk,” Jason said, glaring at them over your shoulder. 

“Stop being dramatic, Jason,” you said, rolling your eyes. 

“Robin doesn’t kill people. And he’d never hurt his soulmate,” Tim said. “You don’t think that they’ll separate us, though, do you? Send me back to my parents?” he added less confidently. 

“We’re not gonna let that happen, are we Y/N?” Jason said, trying to reassure the kid. 

“Of course not,” you responded, though you were chewing your lip. If anyone could do that it was probably a group of superheroes. He had been right about you giving money to Two-Face, after all. Tim had that look that would’ve seemed fine to anyone else, but you knew it meant that he was forcing himself not to cry. You stepped forward and pulled him into your arms. You had at least a foot on him in this body so the hug was more awkward than you expected as you ran your fingers through his hair comfortingly. Then you stretched out your arm to put a hand on Jason’s shoulder, sharing a long look in which several things were communicated silently. “We’ll figure this out. Always do.”

\---

“I am displeased that this information was not given to me sooner,” Kaldur said in his best disappointed leader tone. 

“I didn’t want the mission to be aborted,” Dick defended. “It was a low-risk job.”

“And yet, there was a civilian in the field, in your own body no less. The fact that she only managed to sustain mild injuries is a small miracle.”

“How did she manage to get shot at and not wind up dead?” Artemis asked. 

“Apparently Dick’s muscle memory of fighting stayed in his body. She nailed a guy with a birdarang and probably saved my ass,” Wally said, a little embarrassed about the whole thing. Artemis shot him a glare. 

“Wow, your soulbond must be incredibly strong for you to completely switch places like that,” M’gann sighed, looking a little wistful. Martians didn’t have the same soulbonds as humans and Dick knew that she had always been fascinated with them. This was another reason that Dick hadn’t wanted the rest of the team to know. He was sure that the teasing was going to start here and never end. Especially with the way that Wally was currently wiggling his eyebrows at him. 

“It is quite an unusual case,” Kaldur agreed. “I can reach out to some of my contacts in Atlantis to see if anything is known about this phenomena.”

“Thanks, Kaldur, that would be helpful. For now I guess I’ll just… bring her back to the cave with me. B is going to freak,” Dick said, feeling more tired than he expected. 

“Best of luck,” Kaldur said, and that seemed to be the cue that the conversation was over and everyone else started reluctantly heading upstairs, wanting to give them some privacy, but still throwing looks back at the four remaining people. Dick looked over to where his body was currently. It would never not be weird seeing himself from different eyes, and it was especially true right now as his soulmate was interacting with her little brothers. Every bit of body language spoke of deep, unconditional love, from the way that one arm curled protectively around the smaller boy to the soft facial expression on his face as she looked at the other. Even with the mask on there was no mistaking it. He found his heart aching in longing to be a part of it. That strong sense of family coming through the link was something that he hadn’t fully experienced since his days in the circus and that look on his own face brought to mind memories of the way that his mother looked at him and his father. 

Sensing his brief moment of distress, his soulmate looked over and even though the domino mask made it impossible, he could swear that he knew the moment that their eyes met. Through the bond, he could feel what he recognized as wariness and distrust. Of course, that was all under the fierce protectiveness that she felt for the boys. He had no doubt that she would throw him under the bus to save them, but that was strangely okay with him. He’d only known them for less than a day and he was starting to feel similarly. Bruce always said that he got attached to people too easily. 

“Come on, we should get going,” Dick said, clearly interrupting the moment. 

“Where are we going?” Y/N asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously. 

“Back to Gotham. Specifically the Batcave,” Dick answered, heading over to the zeta tube to give the right permissions. 

“Batcave? Cool!” Tim chirped, extracting himself from Robin’s hold and bouncing over to where Dick was working. A mutual feeling of fondness found its way through the soulbond. 

“Don’t think that I’ll forget about you fighting just because I’m stuck as my soulmate.” Dick heard Y/N remind Jason as they both made their way over. 

“Didn’t your soulmate start beating up bad guys when he was like, 9?” Jason deflected. 

“I wouldn’t exactly call him a good role model,” Dick heard his voice sigh. 

“Hey, in my defense I had a lot of training,” Dick laughed, putting his hands up in defeat. 

“Then you should train me,” Jason said, as if getting an idea.

“I could show you a thing or two,” Dick mused, then backpedaled when his soulmate shot him an angry glare. “When you’re older, of course.”

“Let’s just go,” Y/N muttered. 

They stepped through the light and into the Batcave, the familiar voice announcing their arrival. Dick looked over to see that Bruce was, of course, still up and standing next to the computer. He had evidently put up his cowl when there were multiple guests announced. 

“Robin, what is this?” Bruce asked, straight to the point. 

“Don’t look at me,” Y/N answered, pointing to Dick. Bruce looked confused for a second, but then in typical Batman fashion seemed to realize that his son was in the wrong body. There was no change of expression on his face, but the minute tensing of his muscles told Dick that he was surprised. 

“Hey B. So it looks like I found my soulmate,” Dick said, gesturing to himself. 

“You switched completely?” Batman asked, getting that tension in his jaw that meant he was thinking. 

“Yup. Right in the middle of today’s mission,” Dick explained. “Everyone is okay. The mission was successful. Wait, the mission was successful, right?” He eyed his soulmate. 

“As far as I can tell?” she answered, unsure. 

“Mission was successful,” Dick decided. 

“Jason, you have got to come look at this!” Tim’s voice called back. Immediately upon entering he had steered straight toward a set of glass cases over on the edge of the cave. Jason, who had been keeping an eye on him, wandered over. “This is Mr. Freeze’s first ever frost gun! You can tell because of the--”

“Who are the kids, then?” Batman asked, not paying attention while Tim went into way too much detail about the gun and how Batman had won it. 

“Those would be my Y/N’s brothers. I kinda messed up their sleeping arrangements so I brought them here,” Dick said, wincing at how little that actually explained. 

“Where are your parents?” Bruce asked. Dick wanted to interrupt at the sudden feeling of grief and anger through the link, but she answered right away like she had been expecting the question. 

“Mine? Long dead. Jason’s father _might_ still be alive in prison, we have no idea. Tim’s are probably living it up somewhere in Europe, not even caring that they left their _9 year old child_ alone,” Y/N listed off, causing both Bruce and Dick to cringe in sympathy. 

“They were sleeping in one of Two-Face’s warehouses when we switched. It had been turned into a sort of runaway kid recruitment safehouse,” Dick clarified. He and Bruce shared a dark look between them. 

“I’ll notify the authorities,” Bruce said. 

“Great, but leave us out of it,” Y/N snapped. 

“Y/N--” Dick started, but she cut him off. 

“I’ve been doing just fine taking care of us, you can’t take them away from me.” There was obvious fear in her voice, but her body language made it look like she was ready to fight them both to the death over it. 

“I’m sure you have been doing fine,” Bruce said, trying to reassure her, “but you’re still just a child--”

“I haven’t been a child for a long time,” she stated cynically. 

“That doesn’t mean that it’s right,” Bruce stated in a voice that left little room for argument. Then he sighed. “One problem at a time. Let’s try to figure out how long this swap will last. I’ll ask my contacts in the league to figure out if there’s precedent.”

“Aqualad already said he’d dig around Atlantis,” Dick informed him, glad to be off of the previous topic. 

“Great. In the meantime we can use blindfolds to--”

“That’s okay, B, they already know,” Dick cut in, looking around to find Tim. “The little guy figured it out.”

As if sensing that the conversation had looped around to him, Tim approached the group, apparently done with his self-tour of the cave. He was eyeing the computers behind them longingly. 

“That’s right, Mr. Wayne! I’ve even figured out your patrol schedule. I have some really great pictures from following--”

“Thank you very much, Timmy, we all know that you’re very smart,” Y/N interrupted, probably thinking about how she was just saying how well she could keep them out of trouble. Dick shot her an incredulous look. Tim was beaming with pride at the compliment, oblivious of the intentions. 

“Well then, I think you should all go up to the manor and get some rest. Everything else can wait until the morning,” Bruce sighed. This clearly hadn’t been how he was planning his night to go. 

“Sure thing, B. I’ll take them up and then we can--”

“You too, Dick. I’m sure that it’s been an eventful night for everyone,” Bruce said in a light tone, but Dick knew that it was an order. Normally, he’d protest, but he had been forcing back yawns all night. When was the last time that his soulmate had slept?

“Fine. Come on you three, let’s go find Alfred,” Dick relented and started heading toward the elevator for the manor. He heard them all reluctantly start following. 

\---

If Alfred had been surprised to find that he had three more children for the night, or even that Dick was in the wrong body, he hid it well behind that typical grace as he led you to three of the guest bedrooms, all close together. You helped him make up the beds and then he took his leave with promises of a big breakfast in the morning. Dick fished out some clothes from his room that he said you could use as pajamas, even though Tim was sure to be swimming in them. The boys headed over to their rooms, leaving you and Dick together alone for the first time. 

“How the hell do you get this damn thing off,” you complained, tugging at the mask over your eyes. Dick just laughed and hit the release point so that he was able to remove it for you. You immediately rubbed at her eyes, then looked around. When your eyes met his, you both looked away, blushing. Dick cleared his throat. 

“If you think that’s hard to get off, the rest of the suit is way worse. You’ll probably need some help with that,” Dick said before he realized what that meant.

“So what, are you suggesting that I let you strip me?” you asked, eyes narrowed, but your voice was just on the edge of teasing as he blushed. 

“Wouldn’t that technically be stripping me?” he asked, thinking it over more. 

“Maybe. God, this is weird,” you blurted out. 

“Super weird, right?” Dick confirmed with an awkward laugh. There’s a pause.

“I’m sorry if I seem super obnoxious, it’s just my brothers…” you trailed off, but Dick understood. 

“It’s okay. I get it. You want to protect your family. I’m sure Bruce understands, too,” Dick said, voice soft. 

“You think?”

“Absolutely. Now, believe me, I know how uncomfortable it is to sleep in that thing, let’s figure out how to do this,” Dick said, effectively changing the subject. There’s a little bit of arguing, but in the end you decided to go into the bathroom to change while he called out directions. It didn’t matter whose body it was, the fact that you were changing in front of someone else made you uncomfortable. You tried to give him some privacy and do it as efficiently as possible, but you couldn’t help but notice that your soulmate had a great body. And what else had you really expected from a vigilante? There were some supplies under the sink that you used to clean and bandage the cut on your side.

“Okay my turn. Any secret hidden tasers that I should be worried about?” Dick joked through the door as you finished up. 

“Don’t get any ideas, boy wonder,” you warned through the door.

“Gasp. I’ll have you know I’m nothing, if not a gentleman,” Dick teased back. You heard fabric rustling as he moved around. You splashed some water on your face, trying to get rid of the full blush that painted it’s way across your face through this entire thing, but even the blush looked good on Dick and that realization only made it worse. 

“You can come out now. You’re decent,” Dick said and you opened the door and walked out. 

“You look good. That t-shirt really brings out your eyes,” he said, looking you over. 

“Self absorbed, much?” you muttered, but couldn’t help but laugh. You basked in the feeling of being with your soulmate. You could feel his unease and tentativeness, but also his warmth and laughter. There was a silence while the two of you just enjoyed each other’s company. 

“Well,” you said when you realized that this was probably going on too long. “I guess I should…” You motioned to the door. 

“Yeah. Right,” Dick said, and you could feel his disappointment clearly through the link. 

“Then again, it _is_ my room,” you said, biting your lip. _Amusement. Hope._

“It’s really only half your room, if you need both body and mind to make a person,” Dick pointed out. 

“So really, if we want one whole Dick to stay in Dick’s room, then we both have to stay,” you finished. 

“Logically, of course.”

“Yes, of course.”

Dick gestured to the bed and went to go turn out the lights. You crawled underneath the covers and made yourself comfortable. The bed dipped beside you as Dick did the same. It was really nice to know that you both had the same desire to be close, shared between you through the link, without having to try to guess at the other’s intentions. This feeling was nice, but you couldn’t help but worry about what was coming tomorrow. If Bruce decided to force you back into the system, then you’d have to--

A hand closed around yours. It was small and soft compared to your own. 

“Y/N,” Dick mumbled, already half asleep. “I’m not going to let anyone separate you and your brothers.”

You grabbed his hand and let his sleepy reassurance come through the link. 

“Thank you, Dick,” you breathed, but he was already asleep. 

When you woke up, your first thought was wondering when the last time you had slept in an actual bed had been. Then you remembered that you had fallen asleep in Dick’s room and…

“Thank God,” you praised as your hands came up to your face. It was your own. You hugged your familiar body and told yourself that you’d never take it for granted ever again. Then you remembered that you hadn’t been alone when you had fallen asleep and your eyes flew open, settling on the empty stretch of bed next to you. You heard the sound of the shower running in the attached bathroom and put two and two together. You picked yourself up out of bed and quickly threw on the clothes that had been discarded on the floor the night before. You didn’t really feel like staying and waiting for Dick to get out. 

Deciding to go check on Jason and Tim, you pushed the door to the room open and crept out, only to jump in surprise when a voice cleared its throat behind you. You whirled around to see Alfred watching you as you snuck out of Dick’s room and you were suddenly mortified. He gave you a disapproving look and said, “Breakfast is this way, Miss Y/N. Your brothers are already attending.” You wanted to ask how he knew that it was you, but thought better and just followed him silently, knowing that you were blushing hard again. 

Last night when you had been led to the bedrooms you hadn’t really gotten a clear look at the place and now that you did, your embarrassment was replaced by awe. Everything here was so beautiful. You immediately felt out of place. Alfred led you to a dining room not too far away and you saw Jason and Tim seated at the end of the long table with food spread out in front of them. It was only when you got fully into the room that you could see that Bruce was also there, sitting at the head of the table. Alfred had disappeared almost the minute that you had walked in, so you hesitantly took a seat opposite Tim and Jason, noticing that the conversation had stopped when you had entered. 

“Good morning, Y/N,” Bruce said pleasantly. “Feeling like yourself again?”

“Yeah, it’s me,” you murmured back, reaching out and taking some fruit that was set on the table to avoid looking at anyone.

“Glad to hear it. Tim here was just telling me all about the idea that he had for a rocket-powered skateboard,” Bruce said, sounding amused. You eyed him suspiciously, but as far as you could tell he was genuine. 

“Was he?” you said, looking at Tim who was practically beaming up at you and then over to Jason, who seemed relaxed. That more than anything put you at ease. Jason was never relaxed. 

“Did you get any information from your contacts?” you asked. 

“In fact, I did. We should wait until Dick is here to discuss business, though. Please, help yourself,” Bruce offered, gesturing at the excessive amount of food that was placed on the table. You looked up to make sure that Jason and Tim were eating and was pleased to see that they both had evidence of a large meal on their plates. Jason was still happily chewing on some bacon. 

“Thank you, Mr. Wayne,” you said sincerely. 

“Please, call me Bruce,” he shot back, giving you a bright smile. You tentatively took a couple more things off the table to put onto your place, but you were too nervous to really eat. You wondered whether Dick even remembered his promise last night. 

“Good morning all! Guess who’s back in the right bodies,” a bright voice came and with it, Dick. He was dressed in casual clothing, still drying off his hair with a towel. He seemed happy. 

“Great, Dick’s here. What’s the news?” you asked, wanting to get this over with, whatever it was. Dick could probably sense your anxiety, since he just sat down at the table without comment. 

“Aquaman’s sorcerers came back with some good insight. Apparently strong bonds like that react to distance and time. So basically, being a long distance apart for a long enough time seems like it will trigger a switch like the two of you experienced yesterday, and being physically close together will revert the effects,” Bruce explained. There was a moment of silence where everyone took that in. 

“So what does this mean for me being Robin?” Dick asked reluctantly and you promptly felt guilty that you had been too caught up in your own problems to realize what a big impact this was sure to have on Dick too. 

“It means that you’ll need to be more careful. With a little bit more study we might be able to determine the exact causes of the switching and avoid it altogether, but you both need to let someone know immediately when it happens,” Bruce answered, his voice hardening at the end, indicating that he knew exactly what had happened last night. A bit of shared guilt came through the link, but that was quickly replaced with relief from Dick. 

“As for the domestic situation between you three,” Bruce started and your stomach dropped. This was it. “I have no choice but to alert the authorities and trust the system.” You opened your mouth to protest, strongly, but stopped when Bruce held up a hand and continued. “I have already, however, gotten the appropriate documentation for temporary custody of all three of you, pending a court case, if you so choose.”

Your mouth dropped open in shock. Those were the last words that you had expected to hear. If what you were hearing was correct, billionaire Bruce Wayne had just implied that he wanted to adopt not only you, his son’s soulmate, but your two younger brothers as well. There had to be some sort of catch in there somewhere. You suspiciously looked over at Bruce again. Jason was even less trusting than you and was giving Bruce a similar staredown. Tim looked ecstatic for a moment, then when he saw the way his siblings were reacting, quickly mirrored them. Bruce held your stare. 

“This is, of course, completely up to the three of you. It is convenient for Dick to have you close by for the reasons that I’ve previously mentioned, but other arrangements can be made. It’s also convenient for me to keep you three close, since you have been made aware of multiple closely-guarded secrets and could be made targets. I’ve also done some research into each of your family situations, and I feel as though I’m uniquely qualified to offer you a second chance.”

Wow. Just, wow. There was a lot to take in there. Bruce’s arguments seemed extremely reasonable, and you were struggling to come up with how this could possibly be some sort of trick. You did feel a little put off that he had thought of all this and had already done most of it, but also it was Batman so maybe you shouldn’t be. The one thing that you knew for sure was that whatever decision you made, it would be all three of you. 

Looking at Tim was probably unnecessary for the most part. He was giving you the most intense puppy dog eyes, while trying to be subtle about it. His idol had just offered to adopt him after his own family didn’t want him. Tim’s preference was a no brainer. Jason, on the other hand, was a bit harder to read. His eyes when they caught yours had a healthy dose of skepticism. He, like you, had had bad experiences with foster parents in the past, which made trusting adults just that much harder. Beneath that, though, you knew him well enough to see the hope in his eyes. Jason had been on the streets for the longest out of the three of you, and he’d never admit it, but he was tired of it. You saw it in the way that he would disappear into books, trying to get a taste of a life that would never be his. Jason eventually gave you a small nod, indicating that he would go along with whatever you wanted. 

Dick’s eyes were like Tim’s. Pleading for you to take the offer, but also remarkably understanding, like he would respect your choice either way. You blocked out the feelings of the bond, not wanting that to affect your choice in the matter. Now all that was left was you. 

This was a big step to take, and very soon. You didn’t want to rush anything, but also, you vaguely knew how these court systems worked. A temporary custody wasn’t the end of the world if it was a bad fit, there would still be time to disentangle you and your siblings from him if you needed to. Plus, it would be great to be around Dick more, now that you’d found him. And apparently if you weren’t around Dick more, you might end up in another potentially dangerous situation like you had last night. Not to mention the fact that you were sure that Two-Face’s gang was going to blacklist you from all of your previous known resources, so going back to the streets would be twice as hard. 

_Bruce adopted Dick, and he seems happy_ , your brain supplied. Nothing about him set off any serious red flags so far…

“Okay, alright,” you found yourself saying. “We can give it a shot.”

Everyone at the table seemed happy at your words and Bruce left shortly after to go and make more arrangements for it. Between Tim, Jason, and Dick, almost everything on the table was picked apart and eaten by the time that they were all getting up for a tour of the manor from Dick. Dick seemed especially happy to have company, and you imagined being in this big space alone. No wonder he was ecstatic about this. 

The tour was what really cemented your mind about this decision. Dick was so animated, talking about all of the different rooms and which chandeliers were load-bearing. Soon all three of you were laughing and enjoying yourselves, even Jason. He gushed over the library the same way that Tim had over the Batcave. At the very end of the tour, you paid more attention to the bond between you and Dick and you caught him staring at the three of you. 

_Hope. Excitement. Fondness. Love._

Yeah, you definitely made the right choice.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!  
> I'll get the next couple out soon


End file.
